


Flying in the Face of Fate Season Two

by muddyevil



Series: Flying in the Face of Fate [2]
Category: Flying in the Face of Fate
Genre: M/M, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:27:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 35,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21832189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muddyevil/pseuds/muddyevil
Summary: Life in Winterdrift has settled into a steady rhythm, of sorts. But the rumours of a curse still weight heavily on Caelan's mind, not that he could do much about it. Lin is occupying his time with his research, but when a couple of chaotic tieflings are added to the mix, well, things are gonna change pretty quick.Flying in the Face of Fate is an LGBT+ work that was originally a podcast. Links to the audio version can be found at https://linktr.ee/flying_fate
Series: Flying in the Face of Fate [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1573132
Kudos: 2





	1. Painting Faces

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Flying in the Face of Fate](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/542950) by Nathaniel Barry. 



Life with Lin was… hard to put into words. Sure, he had offered Caelan a high enough salary for him to get an apartment somewhere in the city but… well. It was Hyrendell. His salary here could afford a small dingy apartment somewhere in the worst district in the city, instead of the three story house in the suburbs the same amount of money would get him back in Eastbourne. Why would he want to spend most of his salary on accommodation when there was a perfectly good house for him to stay in for free? That way he could use his salary on all sorts of fun things, or, let's be real, save it like he had been doing. He never knew when this job would end and it paid to be prepared. Staying here, in a house like this, was more than enough payment on it’s own, in all honesty.

The food was good, too. Lin’s apparent hatred of sleeping meant that he woke up to a varied breakfast every single day. Sometimes it was an array of fruit, fresh and pre-cut into perfect bite-size pieces. Others it was full cooked halfling breakfast, with meats and freshly baked breads. Caelan ate a wider variety of food in the month that followed returning to Hyrendell than he had ever tried in his life. Obviously there were more than a few meals that he absolutely hated, the taste was too strong, or the texture wasn’t quite what he enjoyed, although he was sure that it had still been cooked absolutely perfectly. But it never really seemed to matter, he was simply honest with Lin about what was good and what was bad, and there were always enough leftovers in the fridge to keep him fed that meal.

Cookbooks of every culture on the island, and many further afield, lined the walls of Lin’s kitchen, and it wasn’t a rare sight to come downstairs to Lin pouring over them, hair braided back with an apron wrapped around his waist. A few times Caelan had tried to surprise him, sneak up behind him and catch him off guard, but each and every time he spun around, catching him in a kiss before wishing him good morning. It was a surreal feeling. Caelan really, really wasn’t used to being caught, and here was this guy who seemed almost… useless at everything else who was impervious to it no matter how hard Caelan tried. If he didn’t know any better, he would say that there was magic involved.

The majority of the day Lin spent in his office, doing… something Caelan didn't quite understand. From the times he popped in, asking if the elf wanted coffee, he would usually have his head buried so deep in his papers, or his books, that he didn't even notice the half elf come in, or him swapping out an empty cup for a full one. It didn’t matter how much Caelan tried to coax him out, he'd skip lunch most days. He’d only emerge at the end of the day, still as perky as he was in the morning before cooking a full three course meal for them that night.

Talking of books, Caelan spent most of his days trying to make his way through the huge number of fiction books Lin had in his library. He was never the fastest reader, sure, but even if he was he knew there would be enough here just in the languages he spoke to occupy him for months, maybe even years. If he included the books in languages he didn’t even recognise, he was sure there were more books here than he could read in a lifetime. Some days he would stay in the library, reclining back on one of the large couches, but more frequently he found himself lounging outside in the garden.

Lin’s garden was magnificent. Caelan wasn’t quite sure where it even ended, it stretched on so far. Behind the house was a well manicured lawn, bordered by beautiful flowers that he couldn't even begin to name. It stretched back, grass slowly being replaced with more and more sand, flowers more appropriate to an arid environment dotted amongst the others in a seamless transition to the desert that the Cobel Expanse was famous for. To the left of the house was a large pool, the outdoor pool, which usually Caelan wouldn’t be interested in if it wasn’t for the lazy river that ran into it and the sun loungers alongside it. It was nice, to dip his feet in the water and lie back under one of the large sun shades as he read. As long as he didn’t stay out in the sun for too long, and used enough of the sun blocking cream Lin had not so subtly left out after the first time Caelan got burnt, he got along just fine.

The right side of the garden, and the view you saw outside of Lin’s room, was maybe the most beautiful. There was a knot garden, full of bright flowers which Caelan was sure weren’t supposed to all flower at once, let alone all at this time of the year. Behind them were tall, twisting trees that curled easily around each other and stretched up into the sky. Caelan had gone through there, after a few days of exploring the rest of Lin’s garden, curious as to what the sound of water was coming from behind it. The forest wasn’t as big as the ones he had been in with his mother, but it was plenty sizable for something existing in somebody’s garden, or at the edge of somebody’s garden, or even just for being so close to the city. He had finally found a river of crystal clear water, winding itself through the trees. It looked deceptively shallow, and Caelan had even had to magic himself out of it after he took a step too far and stumbled into the water. 

That evening Lin had warned him about the river, about the number of people who had lost their lives in there assuming it was peaceful and tranquil. There were strong currents under the water, he explained, that dragged people under no matter how good a swimmer they were. From that point onwards Caelan resolved to avoid going into the water, no matter how interesting the other side looked.

Following downstream a few days after he had come across the edge of one of the cliffs at the border of the expanse, the water plummeting down to the ocean below. He sat there for a while, two or three times, watching the few sticks and debris from further up the river tumble to their doom on the rocks below. It was fairly clean, in all honesty, as rivers go. He’d pulled one of the maps from the library, watching this specific river on it’s short route from the mountains, through Lin’s estate, and into the falls.

He often found himself waiting there until the sun set, cross legged on the floor as he played his dulcimer, or read a book he had brought with him. Lin never seemed to mind. In all fairness, the garden was perfectly safe, and Caelan could make his way through the dark just fine, so there was nothing to worry about. Every night, as soon as he was back, there was a different meal on the table, and more leftovers in the fridge for him to take out the next day. It was almost as if Lin had spent the entire day doing that, and not whatever work he actually did.

"What did you do today?"

It was a question that Lin asked every evening, as soon as Caelan sat down. There would already be a glass of water on the table, and cutlery laid out perfectly. They usually ate in the kitchen, a small table set up in the middle of a room which looked more suited to feeding hundreds, not just the two of them. Sometimes they ate in the grand hall, though, when Lin was feeling fancy, surrounded by marble and gilded decorations. 

The room was obviously meant for huge glamorous parties, with a perfectly smooth marble floor leading up to a large stage that could probably fit and entire band if they wanted it to. Green, red, and gold drapes hung between large decorative columns, and Caelan didn’t need to feel them to just know they were made of real velvet. There was only one table in there, one which didn’t quite fit in with the decor and was obvious that Lin had bought one later for smaller occasions than the room was designed for. He had looked around the house a few times, and come across a storage room full of chairs, tables, decorations, and everything that was needed to throw a bigger party than Caelan had ever seen.

Caelan would always answer Lin’s question honestly. It didn't matter whether he had taken on a small job in the city or just lounged around, Lin always wanted to know the details. He wanted to know how the work went, or how the book he was reading was planning out. 

But for someone so interested in what he was doing he was somewhat… respectful, too. Whenever Caelan wasn't up for talking, or didn't want to explain the book in the minute detail Lin requested, he never pushed. Instead the elf simply nodded, getting back to his food and leaving a comfortable silence hanging in the air. 

The evenings were just as easy, just as chilled out as the days were. Caelan would set about lighting a fire in the drawing room before the two of them would relax back until it was time for bed. The tradition had started the first time he watched Lin struggle with matches and tinder, before jumping back in surprise when Caelan sang a small tune and it sprung up magically. 

Sometimes Lin would read with him, laying his head in the half-elf's lap as he made his way through a book faster than Caelan ever could. Sometimes he would translate one of the fiction novels Caelan couldn't understand, voice smooth and only stumbling at some of the harder words that he couldn't immediately decipher. 

Other times, when Caelan was tired of reading, or wanted to play, he would pick up his dulcimer and pluck at the strings randomly. Lin would leave him be, then, giving him all the space he needed to stretch out. The elf usually set up a canvas on the easel that he stored in the corner of the room, or a smaller sketchbook and set to work. 

Lin made many things, from small sketches to larger full paintings. Caelan watched, occasionally, when he knew the melody well enough to not need to look at the strings or if he was just making it up as he went along. No matter what Lin was doing, the result was always beautiful and as close to perfect Caelan had ever seen. It was another facet of Lin’s life where, if Caelan didn’t know better, he would assume that Magic was involved.

But today, nearly a month after living with Lin, Caelan noticed a pattern. It wasn’t as if he was really meaning to, the realisation just washed over him out of nowhere.

"You always draw people."

This time it was an Elven woman, the darker skin of a wood elf with hair that was yet to be coloured flowing over her shoulder. She was still in the early stages of being painted, but the sketch was fully completed and Caelan could see she was going to almost unnaturally beautiful. 

Lin, however, froze in place, brush still held against the canvas as he turned to look at Caelan with a shocked expression.

“I… uh. Do I?”

Caelan nodded, putting his dulcimer beside him and standing up to look through some of the more recent paintings Lin had completed. Mostly portraits, or gestural sketches, but even the landscapes had people in them. Sitting in cafes, camping through the wilderness.

“Yeah. Every single painting I have seen you do, every single drawing, it has someone in it somewhere. It could be a game. Finding the person in your art.” He paused for a moment, watching Lin’s face as he looked over at the art with an unreadable expression. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. It’s just interesting. You like drawing people.”

Lin paused, looking back at his painting before resuming. Caelan wondered if he was trying to avoid eye contact. He’d found the elf preferred difficult conversations when he didn’t need to look.

“I… I like people.” he started as he worked on bright green irises. “They’re… interesting. You can capture so much about them with just one painting. You can’t do that with landscapes, or objects. Not as easily, anyway. But you can look at a painting of a person and wonder just who they are. It doesn’t even matter if they’re real or not, it’s fun to contemplate their hopes, fears, dreams.”

Caelan nodded, sitting down closer to Lin with a smile and watching him work. It was interesting, watching the way the picture came together.

“So, who is she? Is she real?”

Lin paused for another second, before smiling fondly in a way that answered Caelan’s question.

“This is Evercia. Ever. We stayed in her house in Winterfell. She’s… She’s a close friend.”

Caelan smirked, watching Lin’s ears twitch as he worked on the painting in front of him.

“I don’t know many people who smile like that, or paint intricate pictures of just friends. I bet the two of you were a stunning couple.”

And there was Lin’s blush was, the kind that stretched from the tips of his ears right down to disappear underneath his shirt. Caelan knew that if he didn’t have the shirt on it would stretch down to his belly button. He stumbled a few times, like he usually did, before taking a deep breath and continuing with his painting.

“We never, ah. She’s more of a sister to me.”

Caelan sighed. He’d put his foot in it. Leaning forward he rubbed his hand down Lin’s arm gently, trying to reassure him. “She just wasn’t into you, huh?”

Lin chuckled a little, sitting back in his chair and looking at Caelan slightly. “That wasn’t the issue. She was plenty into me, it’s just… um. We kissed, a little. She was my first kiss but I just… wasn’t into it. Women aren’t really my… thing. Not that she’s not beautiful.”

Caelan couldn’t help but smile at that, the way Lin was looking at him awkwardly as if it was some sort of surprise he was gay.

“That’s fine. Everyone’s into different things. I bet she wasn’t too pleased about it, though.”

Lin laughed again, looking down at the floor. “Nah, not really. It was my first kiss, too, so apparently sitting back and asking her ‘Is it supposed to be that wet’ isn’t the way to go.”

It was Caelan’s turn to laugh, then, a genuine laugh that he found himself having more and more.

“Yeah, no, definitely not the way to go. I'm surprised she even spoke to you again."

Lin's response was another chuckle, before he picked up his brush and got straight back to painting. 

It was a few minutes before either of them spoke again, sitting in a comfortable silence that was oh so familiar to them.

“If we’re talking about painting, I was thinking of making a trip to try and practice some more interesting pieces. I wondered if you maybe wanted to come with me?”

Caelan paused for a moment, looking at Lin before nodding and smiling. “Where did you want to go?”

“There’s a… hmm. How do I put this... There’s a sort of… underground fighting pit that happens in town, once a month. The next one is coming up in a couple of days.” Lin explained, back to the same old habit of staring at the painting in order to stop him from needing to look back at Caelan.

Caelan couldn’t help it, blurting out his words with a laugh. “There’s an underground fighting pit in Hyrendell?”

Lin blushed again, that dark blush that Caelan was getting so acquainted with. “Of course there is. What better place for there to be an underground fighting pit? There’s a load of rich people looking for their kicks any way they can. My sibling used to compete every single month. Used to win, too.” And there was that familiar smile, the one Lin reserved for when he spoke about his sibling, whether he knew it or not. “I thought it would be useful to get some interesting poses. I sketch the general gesture while I’m there, fill it in when I get home.”

Caelan nodded. It sounded like fun, above all else. Even if he wasn’t going to be drawing he always enjoyed people competing at the top of their game, and this sounded like the perfect opportunity to watch.

“Alright then, it’s a date.”

The choice of words may have been a… mistake. Lin’s ears pinned down, blush deepening as his hand twitched and left a line of paint where it shouldn’t have gone. 

“Ah… fuck. Okay. I will, uh. I’ll get all the arrangements in place. We will need masks, it’s a… sort of requirement to get in. Being an illegal event, and all, people try not to show their face. It’s also… well, it’s Hyrendell. So it’s pretty fancy. We’d need to…”

“Get me some nicer clothes?” Caelan offered, stopping Lin’s train of thought in its tracks. Whereas it was fun to try and get him to this point, the point at which his brain ran away with him and he almost vomited out his words as soon as they came into his mind, he tried not to torture him with it too much.

“Yeah. Some nice clothes. A nice suit, and a nice mask. Do you… uh. Do you trust me to find something good for you?”

“Of course.” Caelan responded, leaning forward to kiss Lin’s cheek gently before letting him get back to work on the painting. “When it comes to matters of style, I trust you implicitly.”


	2. The Fight

Lin turned the mask over and over in his hands as he watched Caelan dress. It had been easy enough to pick it up in the town, much easier than finding a good suit had been. At least he had a few tailored outfits on order for now, along with the tailor having Caelan’s measurements on file. If he needed to get him a suit again, it would be much easier. 

The mask was simple. Solid black metal as opposed to the fine wire that Lin's was. The only decoration was the light filigree around the eyes, made a pale blue that Lin knew to be exact. He'd ensured with the transmutation wizard he had hired that all the colours would be perfect. 

The suit was almost perfect for him, too. It wasn't tailored but it still looked fantastic on him, pale grey highlighted with the same exact blue of the mask. He was currently preoccupied with checking himself out in the mirror, and didn't even notice Lin standing behind him until he spoke. 

“You look amazing. Almost perfect.” Lin whispered, stepping up behind him with the mask.

Lin ignored the way the bard jumped, spinning around and stopping his hands halfway towards grabbing Lin's collar and lowering them back to his sides. He smiled as he lifted the mask up to the half-elf's face and pressed it over his eyes. It magically affixed to his skin, and Lin checked it was steady before pulling away. He stared into Caelan's eyes, the beautiful piercing blue that he remembered that was mirrored throughout his suit. 

“It brings out your eyes.” he smiled, watching Caelan mirror the smile straight back. “Not that anyone will be looking too closely, but you look really, really good. Well… I’ll be looking but, you know.”

Caelan couldn’t help but laugh back, pulling Lin in front of the mirror so he could look over the both of them at once.

Lin had gotten his suit lined with the same blue as Caelan’s, it would be obvious to any onlookers that they were there as a couple. His mask was for a woman, technically, but it still looked better on his face than the male one, the more delicate lines fitting his features better.

“You look handsome too.” Caelan smiled, turning to kiss Lin’s cheek. The elf watched as his own ears fluttered under the blush that rose across his cheeks. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, not sure what to respond, before Caelan decided to take it into his own hands and turn around to look in the mirror again.

“How did you know what size I was?” he asked curiously, and Lin was glad for the change in topic. It wasn’t as if he hated compliments, per se, but it was hard to accept them. He would much rather just lavish praise on Caelan instead, it was much easier to accept.

“I just have an eye for these things” he chuckled back, resting his arm around Caelan’s waist. “I figured out your size compared to me, and it was easy to work from there. I could have looked at your other clothes, I guess, but that would have been creepy. Even if it didn’t quite fit then I could have gotten you a better one for next time.”

Caelan nodded before turning to grab his hand and drag him towards the door of the bedroom. Lin followed easily, trying hard not to look like a lost puppy as he trailed after him, grabbing his purse on the way out of the door.

The entrance to the pit blended in with the rest of the street fairly easily, but Lin supposed that was the point of secret underground fighting pits. He’d pulled Caelan’s mask off his face before they’d left the house, hiding it in his pocket until they got closer to the area. Masks were good at concealing your identity well, but it was also kind of obvious that you were up to something as well.

As soon as they were within a few streets of the shop front Lin affixed his mask to his face, handing Caelan his to do the same. They both attached magically, which Lin was grateful for. He really didn’t want to be dealing with strings as they were busy walking along.

The entrance was disguised as a tailors. Well, he said disguised, it did operate as a tailor and he was sure there were plenty of clientele who didn’t know what lay beneath. It was more than easy to explain the appearance of most of the people walking in, though. The halfling behind the counter looked up as the little bell above the door rang and his clouded eyes brushed past them. Lin gave him a nod, more out of habit than necessity. Lin nodded at the halfling behind the counter, a man he knew to be blind, even if the cane that rested next to him or the cloudy, unfocused way his eyes looked at you wasn’t enough for him to guess. After all, what better way to protect the identity of those walking in than by having someone unable to see them.

Caelan opened his mouth to talk, but Lin simply pressed a finger to his lips to shut him up. Two wide eyes stared back at him through the mask, and he smiled to try and reassure him as he led his way through to the back of the shop and to the changing rooms.

He held the curtain open for Caelan, letting him into the small room before pulling it tightly closed behind him. Once they were both inside he smiled at the half-elf again, leaning down for a quick kiss before standing back to crouch and feel around under the bench seat.

“What are you…” Caelan started, before Lin shushed him again and found what he was looking for. He pressed hard on the small indent under the bench, feeling the needle press into him to test his blood.

After a moment the whole room lit up with a bright blue light, illuminating their faces and he felt Caelan tense beside him. Ah, Lin thought. He probably should have prewarned him this was about to happen. 

Before either of them could do anything else their entire world shifted perspectives. Lin felt all of his molecules being torn apart one by one, a sensation while not painful was extremely unsettling. The first time it had happened he had thrown up, his brain and body all feeling jumbled and confused, but now he had done it so many times it was almost second nature. Added to that was the fact that stationary teleports like this were always more stable than personal ones, and he had nothing to complain about.

The room they landed in was nothing short of luxurious. Lin had no idea when it had come into the possession of his family, just that he dropped a couple of platinum coins in a safe box every month, and his blood allowed him entry. He wasn’t even sure it was the same room, or just the next available empty room that happened to be furnished the same, but he found he didn’t really care.

Large velvet sofas looked down over the pit, a table with drinks and nibbles already laid out for them with a menu sat pride of place in the middle. The large glass window stretched the entire span of one of the walls, giving anyone inside the perfect view down and over the arena.

He turned to look at Caelan first, hoping that he wasn’t too shaken up from the teleport, but he simply looked a little pale as he gazed around the room easily.

“Sorry” Lin spoke, already making his way over to the table to pour Caelan a drink of juice. “I should have warned you about the teleporting. I didn’t realise until it was too late.”

Caelan waved his hand dismissively, and Lin wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Lin didn’t know whether it was a good thing or a very, very bad thing indeed. 

“Don’t worry about it. It’s just been a while, that’s all.” he droned, making his way over to stand beside Lin and looking around the room in wonder. “So, if we’re the only ones in here, and no one saw our faces on the way in, why do we wear masks?”

Lin smiled, turning around to pass Caelan his juice before taking his hand and guiding him over to the window to look outside.

“We have a private box. They, out there -” He indicated down to the stadium “- don’t.”

Lin had never figured out where the stadium actually was, but it always seemed to be bright and sunny here no matter the weather in Hyrendell. He suppose it must have been magic. They had a good view across the arena, one of the best views. They were only slightly above ground level, in the perfect place to see all of the action without it being too heavily obscured by the participants themselves. It was currently empty, the magical constructs which made up some of the obstacles not yet materialised.

All around the arena, stacked three high, were the same blacked out windows that he assumed they were behind. There must have been hundreds of them, stretching all around the two hundred foot arena easily. And above them? Above them were the stands. The type of stands he was used to seeing when he was forced to attend graduations and other events at the university. It was already half filled with audience members, people of various race and gender packed in and gearing up for what had promised to be a lively show. Lin had never actually seen high enough to see the top row of stands, and when he was younger he imagined they went on forever.

“Oh, wow.” Caelan exclaimed, wide eyes taking everything in that he could. “I didn’t even know there were this many people living in Hyrendell.”

Lin thought for a moment, before sitting down on the sofa and pulling Caelan down beside him, keeping an arm wrapped around his waist. “You know, I have never quite been sure whether the shop is the only entrance here. Surely there would be more people entering at once? And the competitors seem to come from all around the island, so it only makes sense that they have a lot more entrances dotted about. Maybe this is the only fighting pit on the whole continent?”

Caelan hummed, eyes still darting around as he tried to take all of the information in at once. Lin couldn’t believe he hadn’t been here before, but then again it was always difficult to know just how people found out about these things. He knew he wouldn't have any idea about the pit if it wasn’t for his sibling, and he had never thought to ask how he found out.

“So, when does it start?” Caelan asked, and Lin just shrugged as he started to pull his sketchbook out of his bag.

“They’ll have a countdown at fifteen minutes, then at ten, then at five. Before then feel free to order anything that you wanted from the menu.” he added, nodding towards the menu on the table and relaxing back as Caelan reached over to take it.

“So how does this work?” He asked after a minute, and Lin looked up from his rough sketching to look at him closer.

“The food or the pit?” he replied, resting his arm back around Caelan’s shoulders and looking over the menu lazily for what he might want to eat.

“Well… both” Caelan chuckled, still reading the menu and seemingly not bothered by Lin looking over the top of him. 

Lin thought for a second, mulling over just how to answer in his head. It would help if he had any kind of idea just what Caelan already knew. It was hard to figure out just what level to pitch this at without it all going over his head or seeming too condescending.

“Well… It’s a menu. You choose what you want.” Okay… that wasn’t the best of starts judging by the look on Caelan’s face the more he spoke. “Then you… uh. Here. Can you cast a spell for me? Any will do.”

Caelan looked at him for a second, before starting to hum under his breath. Sparks appeared from his fingers, a harmless parlour trick Lin had seen, and felt, many times before. He knew if he got too close to it then it would feel like small pricks of electricity dancing it’s way across his skin.

After a moment he took Caelan’s hand, braving the sparks to form it into a fist, only letting his forefinger stick out and using it to point at a few items on the menu. As soon as they were selected they lit up, and the tally at the bottom for the price started to slowly climb.

“So, this is how you order.” Lin explained, hand lingering on Caelan’s for slightly longer than necessary. “That’s what I want to eat, you just select what you want and we’ll order it.”

He watched as Caelan selected a couple more options, before handing the menu over to Lin with a small smile. The elf stood up, moving back over to the table where the menu had come from and slotting it back into place. After a few seconds it disappeared into a small puff of smoke as it was magicked somewhere else. Where, Lin didn’t know.

“Do you come here on your own very often?” Caelan asked conversationally as Lin settled back down next to him and waited for the show to start.

“Once or twice a year” Lin answered, balancing his sketchbook on the arm of the sofa until he needed to use it.

“No offence…” Caelan continued, and something in the tone of his voice made Lin turn his head to look at him. “But how do you order food when you’re on your own?”

Lin couldn’t help but stare for a moment, before faking a giggle. It was a good question, he supposed.

“I just… uh. Only eat the nibbles they provide. I haven’t actually eaten eaten here in a while. But the food is good, I think you’ll really enjoy it.” He tried not to show how much the question hurt, deep down. It was a fair enough question, and he couldn’t blame Caelan for asking it, but that didn’t help the twisting in his gut thinking about it.

“Anyway” Lin beamed, trying to get the conversation to move along as quickly as possible. “The way the pit works. So.” 

He thought for a moment, before picking up his sketchbook and flipping to an empty page. After a second’s hesitation he drew six circles near the top, filling each with smaller circles.

“They start with teams between four and six. Any number of teams can enter, and there’s usually one or two mop up teams, teams of complete strangers who couldn’t get enough people together to compete on their own.” He shaded some of the smaller circles in the last circle of the diagram. Caelan simply nodded, Lin paying close attention to his face to make sure he was still following along.

“Each team goes up against a randomly selected opponent, on a randomly selected playing field. It could be ruins, jungle, desert. I even saw underwater once, but that’s only in the final stages. It makes it a hell of a lot harder to win the battle if you have to worry about breathing as well.” he explained, quickly sketching a few of the battle grounds he had seen.

“So the teams fight each other?” Caelan asked, looking over the diagram with interest.

“Not until the final round.” Lin corrected, using his pencil to strike through a couple of the circles and drawing more further down. “If the team all go down, then they get eliminated. The officials watch the whole time, looking for the team’s strengths and weaknesses to scale the fights accordingly and give the audience a good show. They keep going like that until there are two teams left, and then they go up against one another. There’s a thirty minute rest in between each round, and however long the other teams take. It means you have less time to recover between rounds the longer you go on, thus increasing the difficulty in a different way.”

Caelan nodded again, looking between Lin’s more complex diagram and the stadium out ahead of them.

“Do people die?” he asked suddenly, and Lin wondered for the first time just what took him that long before he asked it.

“I don’t think so.” Lin mused, tapping his pencil against his sketchbook as he thought. “My sibling competed a couple of times, and he said they had clerics waiting in the sidelines to heal or resurrect as necessary. Yeah, people die, but they were brought back.”

“Did he do well?” Caelan asked, looking sideways at Lin and he could see the hesitation in his eyes at asking. “Your sibling, I mean.”

Lin paused for a moment, looking out across the arena. It was hard to remember. No, that wasn’t the right turn of phrase. It was too easy to remember, too easy to recollect the flames that filled the arena, the flash of metal and fabric as his sibling danced across it like it was a stage.

It was painful to remember.

“He was one of the champions” Lin chuckled, unable to help the way his voice quivered. “Ro was… Ro always joined one of the mop up teams. He tried to insist he fight alone but they wouldn’t let him. Not officially, anyway. He usually ended up as the last person standing and took the hardest enemy on all on his own, before fighting the last team as well.

“He sounds like he was a hell of a fighter” Caelan almost whispered, not really wanting to ruin the atmosphere Lin had created.

“Yeah.” Lin replied. “He was the best.”


	3. The Perfect Team

The atmosphere in the room was… hard to explain. Of course Caelan had been in similar situations before, hell, he’d been the centre of these situations before, but it was still… different.

The Arena itself had an air of excitement that crackled around the arena and up through the viewing rooms. Caelan wasn’t sure whether it was natural, or magically added to amp up the audience ready for the main event. But in this room? It was quiet, the familiar tang of silent remembrance for those lost.

It didn’t help that Lin had never mentioned any of his family’s names before, let alone the sibling that he held in such high regard. Ro. It was obviously a family that liked short names, and Caelan couldn’t help but wonder what his younger brother had been called.

Not that he would ask right now. Lin had already given him more than enough, more than he ever would have expected him to give. 

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, the same silence that Caelan had gotten used to over the weeks of knowing Lin. It would have been almost relaxing, if it wasn’t for the dark cloud that had settled over them conflicting with it.

After a minute or so Lin’s ears perked up just in the corner of Caelan’s vision, the ends swivelling ever so slightly the way his mother did when she was trying to hear something quiet or far away.

“It’s about to begin” Lin said in excitement, and Caelan was glad for the distraction as a very attractive Aasimar stepped into the ring. She was tall, long gold-tipped brown wings spread out behind her. Caelan couldn’t help but rake his eyes up and down her body, shifting a little in his seat.

“Ladies, Gentlemen, and those who are not quite either” she spoke, and her voice appeared in the room as if she was sat right between them. “Welcome to the pit. We have a number of competitors competing today…”

Her words faded into the background of Caelan’s attention as their food appeared on the table in front of them and he shuffled forward to dish it out between the two of them. The portions were much, much bigger than he thought they would be, more than enough for them to taste all of the dishes on offer. He couldn’t help but notice Lin hadn’t chosen any food that Caelan himself didn’t like, and tried not to read too far into it.

His attention was stolen again as he sat forward to eat some of his food and a large crash echoed around the arena. He sat up straighter, staring at the floor below him in curiosity.

Four people were stood in the middle of the arena, pumping up the crowd with so much excitement he found it hard to believe they were about to take on a grueling battle.

A half orc woman stood furthest from them, but Caelan could still see her banging the pommel of her sword against her shield in a steady rhythm. The halfling next to her was joining in with the music, grinning up at her as she played along on a small fiddle. 

Closer to Caelan he could see a wood elf wielding a warhammer that looked much bigger than what she should be able to pick up, let alone swing around. She was holding it above her head, showboating as another halfling identical to the first one danced around her legs. As far as Caelan could tell she wasn’t carrying any weapons at all, which could be right. If she was a magic user that could make sense, he supposed, but he was certainly excited to find out.

Before his very eyes the arena started to move and shift, rocky outcroppings sprouting from the floor while somehow still keeping the line to the competitors clear and free for Caelan to watch them continue with their performance undeterred. He knew it had to be an illusion, had to be some kind of magic, but it looked so real it made him wonder just how solid they were.

His answer came a moment later, as the tail of a large animal caught his eye as it slithered in front of the window and headed towards them. His eyes darted towards the competitors in the middle, wondering if they had seen it.

“There it is, do you think they…” he spoke out loud, looking over at Lin and noticing he was already busy sketching, eyes darting between the arena and the paper on his lap.

“They know. Look at the elf’s ears.” came the response, almost monotonous as he focused on his task.

Caelan looked back over, and sure enough her ears were pricked up high to the sky and twitching slightly. She must have picked up something, because a moment later she roared, and everything pounced into action at once.

The bard’s song finished, and a second later the elf suddenly doubled in size, mid stride towards the creature before another song started up almost instantaneously. The other halfling pulled two rapiers from seemingly nowhere, smirking to herself before appearing to blink out of existence. The half orc yelled almost as loud as the elf, and a shimmering golden shield appeared around the people in the arena. They were obviously a very well oiled machine.

Caelan couldn’t help but start shuffling in his seat, looking around to try and see more of the creature to try and identify it.  
“It looks like a… snake? But not quite…” he mused out loud, not really wanting to disturb Lin before the elf interrupted him quickly.

“It’s an Ecdian. Native to the Attesoll Peaks, hence the style of the arena. They start off with easier creatures, before amping it up as the rounds go on.” he responded, eyes almost flicking between the two points of his focus they were moving so fast.

“This is an easier creature?” Caelan asked, suddenly more than a little glad he was up here rather than down there with them.

Lin’s only response was a nodnodding, and Caelan decided to stop distracting him from the sole reason he was here.

In the arena things had started heating up. The bard stood off in the back of the arena, and Caelan could barely see her from behind the column she was hiding behind. She kept playing her violin, song unnaturally finding Caelan’s ears easily. Every so often bursts of visible magic would emerge from her towards the other three fighters, some of them Caelan knew and some that he had never seen before.

The elf was systematically smashing out the rocks that protected the snakes back with her warhammer. Each crash echoed around the arena, almost providing a beat for the bard’s song. The snake didn’t even seem to reel from the blows, the armour obviously important but completely unfeeling. 

As soon as the flesh was revealed the other halfling popped up from seemingly nowhere, her swords flashing in the light as they slashed across it’s scaled and allowed blood to well up from below. The two of them worked in perfect sync, almost dancing around each other as they worked methodically along the snake.

Caelan was on the edge of his seat when it happened. The swordswoman flickered back into invisibility for a second, before the snake’s tail whipped around in the direction where she had been. The woman reappeared as the predictable happened. The snake was large, bound in muscle, and she was… tiny. She flew across the arena, flipping in midair before slamming full force into the wall opposite Caelan with a sickening crunch. He couldn’t help but stand up in concern, some part of his body willing himself closer, but the window in front of him separated him from the action. 

The elf in the arena screamed louder, ears pinned back as she spun her warhammer around more and more ferociously. The other halfling paused in her song for just a moment, before her song changed tune quickly, magic pouring out from the instrument and surrounding the last woman on the field. 

The half-orc sprinted to where the halfling had fallen, the glow from the bard’s magic mixing with her own as she moved. The golden inlay of her shield, a symbol of a God Caelan didn’t recognise, started to pulsate with some sort of holy light. She skidded to a halt, dropping down to her knees as the light started to spill from her hands into the small body underneath her.

Caelan half wanted to look at Lin, wanted to see if he was as on edge as he himself was, but he couldn’t tear his eyes off what was happening in front of him. Logically, he knew that she would be okay. He’d seen people perform rituals like this over and over again. The halfling would get up, slightly groggy from the magic, and be fighting fit in a couple of minutes.

But that didn’t stop the adrenaline flooded his system. It was like reading a book, and you knew what was happening, and you knew everything would be okay at the end because that’s how books worked. No matter how much you told yourself that, though, your heart still sped up and you still started to sweat.

He had been right, of course. After a few moments of the spell the woman awoke, sitting up slowly before shaking her head fast, clapping the half-orc on the back, and getting straight back into the fight.

The fight didn’t last long, in the grand scheme of things. Definitely not as long as Caelan had expected it to. The team all worked so well together, moving as if they were one body instead of four separately. Caelan hadn’t ever really fought as part of a team, he had always preferred fending for himself, but he had only ever seen people move as one like that once.

As the snake lay dead, and the team celebrated between themselves, Caelan finally sat back on the sofa and looked over to Lin. He had filled a whole sheet of paper with small sketches, images that the half-elf recognised from the battle that they had just witnessed. The half-orc shoving her shield in front of the bard, stopping a stray rock the snake had kicked up from bowling her over. The swordswoman upside down in the air, back arched as she flipped over the snake to rake the blade across it’s back. The wood elf midway through bringing the hammer down on the snake’s head, delivering the final blow.

“So, what happens now?” Caelan asked, pulling his feet up and tucking them under him on the sofa. 

“Oh, you get the other teams taking similar challenges until everyone has gone, and then the teams left standing go onto round two.” he said absentmindedly, turning his paper over to get a clean sheet before starting to stretch his arms to loosen them up before he had to draw again.

“Not with the fighting, with your drawings?”

Lin’s ears shot up in surprise for a moment, before returning back to normal as a small smile broke across his face.

“Ah, um. I take these home, put them in my folder of references. Then I choose the ones I like the best, and make them into bigger drawings or maybe even full paintings depending on how I’m feeling.” he answered, and Caelan would have to be even more unobservant to miss the blush that spread across his cheeks.

“So you’re gonna sketch everyone?” Caelan asked, reaching over to grab some food while everything had quietened down in the ring.

“Maybe. Depends on the aesthetic. I tend to draw everyone, and then decide later. Better than not sketching someone I really wanna draw later on.” Lin responded, leaning forward to take some of his own food and smiling as soon as it was in his mouth. He chewed and swallowed before continuing.

The afternoon continued on in the same fashion, six more teams entering the arena. Some seemed nervous about what was about to happen, but most were showboating and confident about their chances. Caelan couldn’t help but notice the ones more nervous about competing tended to get a better chance of going through.

It was a rollercoaster of emotions throughout the afternoon. From the elation of victories to absolutely crushing defeats, with more and more defeats as the afternoon went on. As the sun started to set above the stadium, either naturally or unnaturally, the final two teams entered the arena for the finale.

The first team that had fought the rock snake was there too, their clothes slightly torn even though they smiled just as brightly and danced just as excitedly as they had in all of their previous rounds.

The other team was larger, six large bulky men who had seemed to fight their way to the final through pure strength and violence alone.

Caelan didn’t need to really watch the fight to know who was going to win this one. His father had always told him that tactics would win above pure strength any day of the week.

Lin had finished with most of his sketching and was relaxing back on the sofa with him, legs up on a small footstool and arm wrapped around Caelan’s shoulders. He hadn’t really gotten too excited the entire time, a product of seeing hundreds of these fights, Caelan supposed.

The superior teamwork of the original team was more than enough to take them through the finale easily. Even though they were outnumbered, and by all intents and purposes out gunned, the way they moved around each other almost like a dance was unbelievable. One of the men was knocked out on the floor almost immediately, with the bard and the cleric switching between support magic and attacking the other team for the first time in the competition.

In the end it was a hard fought fight, and a well deserved win for the women. They ended the fight panting and injured, but victorious. Caelan was left sat at the front of his seat, grinning as he looked at Lin.

“They fought well, didn’t they?” he asked excitedly as the arena was cleared ready for what Lin promised was an exciting awards ceremony. 

“One of the best I’ve seen in a while,” Lin replied with a smile, still not really sitting up from his reclined position. “You don’t get many bards in here, weirdly. You’d think they’d want to show off.” he chuckled, reaching over to poke Caelan’s elbow gently.

“Oh really?” Caelan responded, giggling back as he ate a couple of grapes that were still on the plate. “You ever see me show off like that? Not all bards need to be the centre of attention at all times, you know.”

Lin blushed a little, ears ticking down for a second before he smiled nervously. “You know… you’re right. I haven’t really seen you cast magic at all.”

Caelan thought for a moment, folding one leg under him as he looked over at Lin. “I use light magic all the time. And I had to kill those guys who attacked…”

“Well, yes.” Lin interrupted, and Caelan regretted it instantly. Lin hadn’t really spoken about it since it had happened. Caelan had thought it was just the kind of thing that never came up in day to day conversation but now he realised he didn’t want to speak about it at all.

“But I haven’t seen you really use magic.” Lin continued, keeping a level stare at Caelan as he did. “It would be fun to see you properly. You know I do a lot of research into people’s magic, it’s weird that I’ve never tested yours out right?”

Caelan was quiet for a moment, thinking hard as he watched over him. There had been talk of it, before. Lin had mentioned the tests he ran on people to test the limits of their magic, trying to further people’s understanding about the arcane.

He didn’t want to ask whether his interest was because of Lin’s own lack of magic.

“What exactly do your tests entail?” he asked curiously, tilting his head as he tried, desperately, to make sure whatever Lin said next was the truth.

“A variety of things.” Lin responded, keeping eye contact in a way that, mostly, Caelan’s nerves. “How many times you can cast one spell over and over. How long you can maintain a spell while doing a variety of different tasks. Whether your magic depletes over time. Specific bardic things, like what level of magic you can do without a focus, and what you need to hum for, sing for, use your dulcimer. Anything I test I’ll walk you through it all beforehand.”

Caelan contemplated for a while longer, tapping his finger on his knee. “And what do you use the results for?”

Lin shrugged, finally breaking eye contact to pick up his water and take a drink. “Honestly? Probably just my curiosity. I might find something very interesting though, at which point I might write a paper on it, or it might lead to further testing. I’ll pay you the same as I pay the rest of my test subjects, don’t worry.”

Caelan sat back, turning back to the arena and watching as a stage was constructed before their very eyes and a fancy looking man in a black mask made his way to the centre of it to award the winners with the prize money.

“I’ll think about it.” he said finally, after taking a deep breath. 

He knew, in all seriousness, he would probably say yes. The money was good, and the company was good, and he trusted Lin enough to drop it if he realised he didn’t like it. But for now, there was an awards ceremony to watch, and some good food to finish off.


	4. A Funeral

Night times for Lin had transformed. Before Caelan he would trance at some random time during the day, whenever he felt like he needed to. He could go days without any rest, and did so more frequently that was probably healthy. And if he felt tired, or woozy, he would just sit himself in a chair and trance until he felt better again.

But now Caelan went to sleep every night, and that meant that Lin had to go to sleep every night.

Well, he supposed he didn’t really have to. But there was something about having a set time to go up into the bedroom, and lying together talking about their day until Caelan fell asleep. It was almost amusing, hearing the half-elf’s words start to slur and make less and less sense until he fell asleep.

Only the nightmares were another thing to contend with.

They didn’t come every night, or even every week. They came to him with no rhyme or reason, reminding him of things he had been trying so hard to forget. Every time he woke up with his heart racing, sweating profusely and shaking in the bed. Caelan woke up, sometimes, but more often than not he would sleep straight through. Lin was pleased of that, at least. The nights where Caelan woke up were always the worst, even if he didn’t say anything. Just the knowledge that he had disturbed him made Lin’s heart sink.

Some part of him knew a nightmare was going to come tonight. The day at the fighting pit was flooded with all sorts of sensory memories, the sights, sounds and smells that had been so familiar to him. That tended to be when the nightmares were the worst, when he was thinking about his life before. When he had visited the ballroom back in Winterdrift, when he had first gotten home from their journey. So they weren’t exactly predictable, but Lin could most certainly work out the probabilities of when they were most likely.

So that was why he was sat here in bed, with a pencil and a sketchpad, cleaning up some of the sketches he had made earlier in the day. It was more to occupy his time than to actually enjoy his time drawing like he usually did. They were nothing more than sketches, working on drawing and redrawing the sketches from earlier in order to try to perfect the gestures and poses while they were still fresh in his brain.

The problem was that by gaining the routine of sleeping at set points every day from Caelan, he could feel his body starting to lag. Each drawing got less and less detailed, worse and worse in his eyes until he gave up. Reaching over he rested his pad on the bedside table next to his water, before shuffling down in the bed and praying that, today at least, he would have a restful sleep.

Lin was stretched out on the sofa, pointing and flexing his feet as he looked down at the arena below him. He had always enjoyed the box that the family owned, it was one of the best views in the entire audience. Despite how horrible it was to spend time with his parents there, when he was on his own it was actually quite fun.

It was only the first round of the competition, but still there was one sole survivor left standing from the mop up team. The elf was giggling as he fought, loud enough to be heard around the arena and in all of the audience boxes. Fire filled the arena around him as he jumped and flipped off the brick walls and windows of the faked city scape. With enough speed built up he could even run a short distance along the wall, building up a little height before jumping off towards the battle again.

His weapons and his magic blended together in a way that was rarely seen anymore. The art of fighting he used was certainly dying out, the training taking too long for the shorter-lived races. It definitely didn’t help that the sun elves that had perfected it seemed to guard the secret well enough that there were now only ten or so practitioners, most of them too old to even train anymore. 

In fact, his sibling’s mentor was an aging elf, the very last thing he did when he was still able to move around freely was train his successor. He had approached their father when they were still young, picking the oldest child and taking him away to train. It was grueling, and at times almost deadly, but Lin couldn’t lie and say it didn’t get results.

His entire look was designed to make people look at him. Bright orange hair, flowing behind him like it’s very own flame. A long red cape flowed down his shoulders, enough to brush the floor if he was standing still. But he never stood still, not for a second. The tiniest pair of black shorts actually covered his dignity, but long strands of red, orange, and gold fabric joined by shimmering coins that jangled every time he moved hung off his belt, creating a flurry of movement and noise that drew your eye to him no matter how hard you tried to look away. Even if they were able to resist the desire to stare, the magic that he weaved would take care of it. Anyone who wasn’t expecting it would get drawn in, almost hypnotised by his movements.

It was a dance. A carefully crafted dance to draw the eye to him and away from his teammates. Not that they were really helping today. But that didn’t really seem to deter him from his mission, blades and fire working in perfect tandem to obliterate the hill giant that had been brought in to fight.

Lin was, quite possibly, the person best suited to avoid the pull of his magic, having spent so much time around it, and by extension, learning how to avoid it, but still he occasionally slipped. Now was one of those occasions. He found himself sitting forward in his chair, eyes glued to the man performing in the centre of the arena. Even as the giant fell, and the dance ended, he felt himself standing and making his way slowly to the window to look down below.

The man was looking up at him, the raging inferno in place of where his face should be staring straight back as if he knew exactly where Lin was watching him from. He raised his arms in a triumphant cheer, obviously showboating, and the crowd cheered back.

The man was a performer. He deserved to be watched, deserved to be spoken about.

Deserved to be loved.

He didn’t deserve to be gone.

Lin woke up sweating. It was too warm, too close, he couldn’t breathe. He threw the covers off himself, struggling with them for a moment before sitting up and breathing heavily, trying to get enough air into his lungs. It didn’t help that the heat of the Hyrendell spring was bleeding into the room from outside, the magic that had once protected them having faded over the last few months.

Caelan was still fast asleep next to him, not even stirring as Lin swung his legs off the bed and planted them on the floor. He needed to get out of here, needed to get outside.

If he had learnt anything, though, it was that he didn’t want to freak out Caelan by not being there when he woke up. The last couple of times that had happened hadn’t really gone well for him, and by extension for Caelan. He moved over to his desk, grabbing a pen and paper before writing a quick note to let him know he was okay, he was just going to go and walk in the garden. It was a quick walk over to his wardrobe, grabbing the first shirt and trousers he could lay his hands on. Escaping the room quickly he silently pulled his clothes on, before padding down the stairs and out into the garden.

The nights in Hyrendell never really got as cold as it did further south, but the air here was clearer somehow than inside. Slightly warmer, sure. But less stuffy, feeling thinner and more refreshing in his lungs. The stone around the pool was warm from the day’s sun on his bare feet, and he was more than comfortable in just his undershirt and trousers as he made the familiar journey towards the river that ran through the property.

Never before had he really understood the idea of the outside clearing your head, but tonight it did. His nightmare was still ever present in his mind, but he could… compartmentalise it more. Tell himself none of it was real. Reality was here and now, not back then. There was never a person with an inferno for a face. It was all fallout from the nightmare spell that had hit him. No matter how upset they made him, they couldn’t hurt him, not really. They were just memories. They should be happy, not terrifying as they were right now.

He made his way through the trees, following a well trodden path. He wanted to pave it, some time, although he did enjoy the feeling of the warm grass on his feet. It connected him, somehow, grounded him to the Earth and made his journey somehow holier.

The sound of the river met his ears, making them twitch curiously as he didn’t bother trying to hide it. No one was looking at him, so why should he care how much they were revealing his emotions. The flowing water was something that was so familiar, so close to home that it drew him in as if in a trance. He wasn’t really in the present day any more. He felt like a little kid again, going to find a quiet spot where he could read away from his siblings.

The clearing was beautiful, even if he said so himself. He had never had much of a green thumb, but for this clearing? For this clearing he really tried. Large bushes lined the edge of the sand, bordering it from the rest of the woodland and creating somewhat of a sanctuary. In a few more weeks they would have bloomed for the first time, orange and red flowers covering them so thickly it would be akin to a wall of fire. 

Dotted around the clearing was bushes of lavender, the purple flowers currently absent as they waited to bloom. Lin had timed it all perfectly, nights of research ensuring all of the flowers would arrive at once and the clearing would be an explosion of colour and scent. A few more weeks and… a few more weeks and it would all come to fruition.

He made his way across towards the river, towards the centrepiece and what he had come here for.

A long, curved sword was thrust into the ground, surrounded by a cluster of lavender bushes. The blade was inlaid with gold, three large holes in the middle of it which he was told was to help make the blade sing. There was very, very little hand guard on it, and the owner had once told him that it helped with aerodynamics. Lin had always wondered whether aerodynamics really helped when you got your hand cut off.

He finally moved over, taking a moment to sit down cross legged on the floor in front of the sword. Looking around he took in the surroundings, the rapid stream as it rushed it’s way towards the waterfall, the glint of the moonlight off the top of the water. It should have been calming, should have been a nice place to sit, but...

“Hey, Hano.” He finally said, breaking the silence of the night finally. “I know it’s been a while since I visited. I’ve been away, you see, and… And I found someone who it’s… kind of hard to sneak away from.” he chuckled, leaning back on his hands and stretching his legs out in front of him. “I’ll try and be better about it.”

A couple of deep breaths later, a moment to reflect, and the tears started to fall. He didn’t even bother trying to wipe them away, why should he? No one was going to see him out here. It was only him, and whatever God was bothered to look.

It had been nearly eight months. Eight months since the first time he came here, after having taken so many potions to make him strong enough to drag the canoe over to the shore, and tie it up to the tree to keep it still for him. He knew he would be sick after, spend a week or two in bed as his body recovered from being pushed right beyond it’s limits.

The next thing he carried was a hundred times worse. He had to be careful, this time, his cargo more precious than he could put into words. He was used to carrying bodies at this point, but this… this was different. He actually cared this time.

The canoe was already filled with pillows and blankets, enough to keep him comfortable. The thought was stupid, Lin knew it was stupid, the dead didn’t need comfort, but… he wanted him to be comfortable on his last journey.

Modern day Lin started to sing quietly, the same song that he sang that day. A song of reverence, of memories. Of a life ended far too soon. Of happy times, and the times that still brought tears to Lin’s eyes even now. These songs were supposed to last for hours, sometimes even days, but Ro’s was far too short. Lin hadn’t known enough, they had spent too much time apart for the truly important information to be included in the song. Ro had been in love, Lin knew that at least. But he didn’t even know her name. He wouldn’t even begin to know where to find her. Did she even know he was dead?

He’d laid his sibling in his final resting place, arranging him carefully. Arms crossed over his chest, clutching onto his favourite sword. Cape lay perfectly around him, skirt arranged in the most aesthetic way he could. His eyes were already closed, Lin couldn’t bare to look at the lifeless eyes that he knew was underneath. He’d been washed off blood, too, a necklace stolen from his mother to hide the deep gash across his throat. It was perfect, for what it was.

The memory of the boat setting off towards the waterfall was impeded by the tears that were in his eyes at the time. He’d drank more dexterity aid than he knew was healthy, and he knew once it was compounded with the strength potions he wouldn’t be able to stand for close to a month, but it was worth it. It was all worth it.

Raising the bow to his lips, he had notched the flaming arrow and waited for the perfect opportunity. He had one shot at this, he couldn’t fuck it up. Not like he had fucked up everything else in his life so far. His heart beat faster and faster as the time got closer. This had to be right, he had to be made right.

The arrow flew towards it’s target, the oil he had doused the boat in catching almost instantly. Flames licked at the side of the boat, encompassing the elf inside and engulfing him almost instantly. Ro lived in fire, he would go out in fire. That’s what he’d wanted. That’s what he had asked for, all those years ago. Lin had watched until the boat fell over the edge of the waterfall. Lin had stayed there for the rest of the night, eyes on where he had seen his sibling for the last time.

And that was where he sat now, legs splayed out in front of him as he listened to the rushing water of the river, watching as the debris from further up the river plummeted off the edge like the canoe had done all of those months ago.

Maybe, maybe if he paid his respects here the nightmares would lessen. Maybe he can finally have peace.


	5. The Test

Caelan woke up alone the next day. It pained him to admit that he panicked, even for just a second, until he turned his head and found a note in place of Lin on his pillow. 

Just cooking breakfast, head down when you’re up

Signed with an ornate L and a small heart that Lin always signed his notes with, no matter how short and hurried they were. It always awoke complicated feelings in Caelan’s chest whenever he looked at it.

He rolled out of bed, placing his feet on the floor and stretching his arms up and over his head. It took him a while longer to get up completely, pulling some boxers on before heading into the centre of the room to do his morning stretches.

Lin was used to the routine by now. Sometimes he would stay up here and watch Caelan stretch, other times he would leave him be. Caelan had offered for him to join him stretching, but Lin had quickly shaken his head. 

“Trust me” he had replied, completely deadpan. “You do not want to see me try and stretch. I pull muscles reaching over to grab my book.”

Caelan had tried to explain the more than he stretched, the less that would happen, but Lin still steadfastly refused to join in. It was his loss, he supposed.

It was about half an hour before he finally padded downstairs, enjoying the smell of bacon that was drifting from the kitchen. He had told Lin that they absolutely couldn’t eat fully cooked breakfasts everyday, that he didn’t have the metabolism of a full elf, and he seemed to take it on board. “Once a week” He’d offered, refusing to back further down than that. The rest of the week they ate fruits, or freshly baked bread, or something that leant itself more to a properly balanced diet.

Caelan hated to think how Lin had been eating beforehand.

Heading through to the kitchen, he found Lin standing at one of the counters up to his wrists in bread dough. He was wearing a short sleeved shirt, the first time that Caelan had ever seen him in one, and slightly less tailored trousers with bare feet. His ears swivelled as soon as Caelan walked in, picking him up despite how quiet Caelan had tried to be.

“Morning, handsome” he called over his shoulder, a grin stretching from ear to ear that Caelan could feel even though he hadn’t turned around. “Thought I’d let you lie in this morning. You’ve got a hard enough day ahead of you.”

Caelan raised an eyebrow, moving over to stand behind him, resting his hands on his hips and stepping up close to him. “You’re eager with this whole testing thing, aren’t you?” He asked, stretching up slightly to rest his chin on Lin’s shoulder.

“Mmhm, super eager to start studying you” He giggled, pulling the dough out of the bowl and starting to knead it on the countertop. Caelan couldn’t help but press closer, enjoying the way Lin’s muscles moved under his skin as he put his whole body into the task. “Plus, we don’t have anything else to do today, right? Why not start working on the testing process? I can promise you you’ll enjoy them. They’re not half as bad as they sound.”

Caelan nodded slightly, enough for Caelan to feel it on his shoulder, before tilting his head to kiss his neck softly.

“Alright. I trust you. Just don’t get mad if I get over competitive.”

Caelan was panting as he let lose another spell, decimating the dummy that was coming towards him on a rail. That was number eleven, without a break, but he refused to give up now. His singing had most definitely decreased in quality the further he went on, quick bursts of a melody in between the heavier breaths as his body desperately tried to gain oxygen.

Lin was stood back behind him, watching over the machinery he had hooked Caelan up to and desperately scribbling down notes the more that Caelan fought. This was the first test of the day, and already Caelan knew it was going to be the last. He had only been doing this for three minutes, max, but he was almost passing out. Lin certainly didn’t like to hang back, apparently.

He raised his hand again, desperately fighting for the spell to release, but it just wouldn’t come. Again and again he tried, but there was nothing there. After a few more moments he tried a weaker spell, still taking down the dummy but causing Lin to chuckle and throw a lever next to his hand.

“Eleven. Not bad. That’s more than a lot of people I have in here, you know.”

Caelan took the opportunity to fall to his knees, finally taking proper breaths now he no longer had to sing. He could hear Lin move around behind him, messing with the machinery he had set up and scribbling down information in his little notepad.  
After a moment Lin came to sit down next to him, slowly reaching over and starting to peel off some of the wires he had stuck to Caelan’s skin. He couldn’t help but hiss quietly as the stickers were pulled away and Lin quietly apologised under his breath.

“Sorry. I needed to get it off you, though, you understand right?” he murmured quietly, before slowly helping Caelan sit down properly on the floor. “That’s all we need to do for today. We’ll come back tomorrow, or whenever you wanted to resume.” 

Caelan nodded, closing his eyes and trying to regulate his breathing. His heart was thrumming in his ears, beating a rhythm to accompany the beeping of Lin’s machines now they had been disconnected from him.

The machines all went quiet slowly as Lin turned them off, and Caelan could do nothing but try and recover from the exhaustion he was feeling right down in his bones.

Before he knew it there was a glass being pressed against his lips. He pulled back for a second out of nothing but pure instinct, before Lin sat down next to him.

“Drink it. It’ll help you out, I promise. Won’t give you any magic back, but it’ll really help you with feeling tired.” he explained, and Caelan ended up taking the glass and drinking it down as fast as he could.

“Woah, woah… slow down a little sweetheart.” Lin exclaimed, but Caelan didn’t listen. If this would help the horrid feeling in his muscles, he would drink it as fast as physically possible.

“That was… brutal.” he ended up gasping, letting the glass drop to the floor and roll away. “You could have warned me it would be like that.” He said accusingly, finally deciding to lie down on his back and close his eyes. Maybe he would just take a nap here… yeah. That sounded nice.

“I did tell you I would push you to the limit.” Lin chuckled, and Caelan felt him lie down next to him. “It wasn’t really gonna be comfortable.”

Caelan sighed, shuffling around on the floor to try and get comfortable despite how solid it was. Lin must have noticed, for he started to stand up himself and crouch down next to him.

“C’mon. I’ll put you in the bath, I have a couple things that are really gonna help you out.” he soothed, and for a moment Caelan actually debated it before he opened one eye to look at him.

“No offense, but there’s no way you’re gonna be able to carry me.” he responded, still having to speak between deep breaths.

Lin’s face fell, and for a moment Caelan felt more than a little selfish for saying it. But it was true, Lin struggled to carry bags which didn’t have an enchantment on them.

“I know, but you can lean on me.” Lin pouted, holding out his hand to pull Caelan up to his feet. “It’s really not far to the bath, I’ll put you in there and then fill it up so you don’t need to stand for too much longer.”

Caelan looked at his hand for a second, before slowly taking it. He could see flashes in his mind of falling over, dragging Lin down with him and the both of them ending in a pile of limbs on the hard floor. They’d be lucky not to break anything.

But in the end, the call of a warm bath was much more tempting than any apprehension at the pain that could come after. He took Lin’s hand, using the last of his strength to stand himself up before almost collapsing against Lin’s side.

It was awkward with how much taller Lin was than him, but the elf eventually wrapped an arm around his back, slinging his own arm over his shoulder. He must have been crouched very uncomfortably, but he didn’t seem to complain.

Now… now Caelan could see why Lin had wanted to do this so late in the evening. There was no way he would have been able to do anything after this. The whole day of being completely aware he wasn’t allowed to magic was hard, sure, but not as hard as trying to function after that test would have been.

It was a slow walk, almost too slow to even be called a walk. It was more like a shuffle along the hallway to the ensuite bathroom in Lin’s room. At least the lab was on the same floor as the bedrooms. Which was…

“Why is your lab on the third floor and not the ground floor? That makes no sense.” Caelan asked, trying to ignore the shortness of breath that was still taking over him.

“You know, I don’t know” Lin responded with a laugh. “It was my fathers. I’m almost… carrying on with his research. He put it on the third floor, and I just moved in when he got a better one at work. I’ve never really questioned it before. It always has been annoying to drag all the damn machinery upstairs.”

Caelan couldn’t help but giggle quietly in response, leaning heavier and heavier on Lin the further he went.

“You never thought to ask him, one of those times you were trying to haul all the machinery up?” he chuckled, arm clasping tighter to Lin’s side.

“Never really came up.” Lin responded, readjusting his grip as they made it into the bedroom. “Change of plan. I’m gonna throw you on the bed, run the bath, then take you through. Give both of us a rest.”

Caelan couldn’t disagree with that, his legs were screaming at him by this point and he didn’t think he would be able to go much further like this. Lin’s bed was almost supernaturally comfortable, too, his old Elvish instincts meaning it was covered in blankets and big fluffy pillows so he could feel like he was back in a nest.

Caelan flopped down onto his back, letting himself sink into the big fluffy comforter that Lin insisted on keeping on the bed despite the heat of the North really kicking in. Usually he would complain, but right now it felt so luxurious he couldn’t even begin to feel mad about it.

He heard Lin turn the water on in the other room, and knew that the huge jacuzzi sized tub was being filled. Lin had told him, almost as soon as he had gotten here, that he rarely ever used it before, much preferring the ease of just jumping in the shower to get clean. It had gotten a lot more use since then, Lin and Caelan sharing it at least every other day, for both innocent and not-so-innocent means.

“What kind of bath oil do you want?” Lin shouted through from the bathroom. “I have two that’ll help your muscles, one that kinda smells like marshmellows, one that smells of like… camomile and sandalwood.”

“Marshmallow is intriguing me.” Caelan called back, really not looking forward to having to make the long walk over to the bathroom, even with Lin’s help.

“Alright, marshmallow it is” came the response, and he could just about hear Lin heading back into the bathroom and the quiet fizzing of whatever he was adding to the water.

He knew, academically, that the bath would feel amazing, but right now he wanted nothing more than to stay lying in this bed, falling asleep in the covers. He hadn’t felt like nesting in an awful long time, and he wanted to fight the instinct now. It was good enough telling himself that he didn't really want to nest because Lin was here but more because of the general surroundings. This bed was practically set up to be a nest, it was only natural it made him want to curl up and sleep in as many of the blankets as possible. Nothing to do with the fact that Lin's scent still clung to them, nothing at all.

It wasn’t too long before Lin came back into the room, moving over to the bed and tugging at his belt.

“C’mon. We should get you undressed here, not while you’re standing up in the bathroom.” Caelan groaned loudly in response, but still tilted his hips up to let Lin undress him, before holding up his hands to let Lin help him sit up.

Once he was upright Lin pulled his shirt up and over his head, taking a moment once it was off to kiss the top of his forehead. Caelan couldn’t help but groan as his arms were pulled up and over his head, the muscles screaming in complaint at being manipulated in such a way.

“Maybe you should wear something with button next time, honey.” Lin mumbled against his forehead, before folding up his shirt and resting it on the bed. “Are you ready for me to get you into the bath?”

Caelan nodded, letting his arms fall down around Lin’s shoulders and using him to help stand up. Lin stumbled, for just a moment, before correcting himself easily and taking him into the bathroom much smoother than he had before.

“Did you… did something change?” Caelan asked, feeling how Lin moved differently. Lin might have been able to deny it, Caelan would have written it off as a problem with himself, if it wasn’t for the way his ears dropped enough to tap the top of Caelan’s head.

“I… have some potions in the bathroom from when I really need to use them. I’ll regret it tomorrow, but for now it’s fine.” he whispered, almost sounding like he was ashamed.

“Oh great.” Caelan responded “We’re both gonna be completely useless tomorrow. That’s not worrying at all.”

He felt Lin’s ears drop down again and for a moment he genuinely felt bad about his tone of voice.

“I promise you’ll be okay tomorrow. I’ll still be able to move around, I might just… complain a bit more than usual, that’s all.” Lin replied, finally getting Caelan into the bathroom.

The bath was plenty big enough for the two of them, and smelt absolutely divine. Caelan didn’t usually go for sickly sweet smells, but there was something about this that made it somewhat tolerable. The bubbles were a creamy white colour, and suddenly he wanted nothing more than to be submerged in them.

“Come here.” Lin said, and moments later Caelan was being lifted into the air. It was strange, especially coming from Lin. But he still stepped over into the bath, slowly lowering the two of them until they were both underwater.

He had been right, the water was heavenly. The bubbles burst across his skin in a way that must have been magical, almost massaging at his skin and at his tired muscles. The scent was even stronger here, filling his nose and making him feel sleepy. Normally he would be concerned that there was some kind of drug in here, but… Well he hated to admit it but he trusted Lin.

“What are the effects of this oil?” he asked sleepily, leaning his head back onto Lin’s collarbone and letting his eyes fall closed.

Lin was gently massaging all of his biggest muscle groups, pressing confidently as if he knew exactly what to do.

“There’s lavender in here. It doesn’t magically make you sleepy, but it definitely makes you more likely to fall asleep if you’re tired.” he explained slowly, pressing a kiss to Caelan’s temple.

And, well, that checked out at least. He leant into the kiss, eyes still closed as he just enjoyed it.

“So… we’re not going to do this tomorrow because I am going to be too tired to carry you. But are you okay to carry on doing this? Now you know what it entails? I promise I’m not going to push you to this point again, this part of the test is over.” Lin continued, keeping his hands moving across Caelan’s skin.

“Did I pass the test?” Caelan asked sleepily, smiling a little at his own joke. 

“With flying colours.” Lin responded, and Caelan could feel his own smile against his back. “You did a lot better than other people I’ve tested. And you’re not complaining as much as they did, either.”

“Do you always take a bath with them after?” Caelan asked, smirking despite his exhaustion.

“Nope” Lin giggled back, squeezing Caelan’s hips gently. “Never tested someone as handsome as you before, no need to bring them back into bed.”

Caelan didn’t really want to drift off to sleep, he had always been warned against sleeping in the bath, but if Lin was here it would be fine, wouldn’t it? It wasn’t like he was about to drown.

He woke up, briefly, in Lin’s arms as the elf carried him back to bed. He felt himself being laid on a towel in the middle of the bed, before being wrapped up in that and covered in warm blankets. He was still too tired to want to move, but when Lin laid down behind him, wrapping an arm tight around his waist, he couldn’t help but shuffle further backwards into him.


	6. A Day in Bed

Lin’s head throbbed when he finally emerged from his trance. Judging by the light streaming through the window, he had tranced a lot longer than he usually did. Most of the time he would grab the four hours that he needed to get by on, but today? It had been eight hours at least. That gave him a whole sixteen hours of normal sleep.

If life was fair, he wouldn’t have been tired anymore. But if Lin had learnt anything in his one-hundred and nine years of life, it was that nothing was fair.

Caelan was still fast asleep next to him, but that was to be expected. Even if he hadn’t exhausted himself the day before, the half-elf tended to sleep for at least ten or eleven hours. Lin had thought he would understand it, hanging around him for an extended period of time, but he still didn’t. The thought of that much sleep still left his head spinning.

He tried to sit up, he really did, but his muscles protested. That was the problem with using potions to artificially make him stronger, or more flexible, or generally better at the things he was bad at. The next day he paid the price, and it was usually a lot, lot worse than whatever he had gained from the drinking of the potion. That was why he didn’t do it as often as he really wanted to, the pain from after definitely wasn’t worth it.

He let his head fall back down onto the pillow, staring up at his ceiling. He could, theoretically, trance again. That could get rid of the thumping headache currently making its way through his skull. But no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t concentrate on anything but the pain, and that really wasn’t conducive to healthy meditation.

So instead he just lay there, letting his thoughts drift wherever they decided to go. Sorting through the results he remembered from yesterday, adjusting his future plans in his head. He could do most of what he wanted from here, anyway. It wasn’t as if he had ever strictly needed notes to keep his thoughts in order, anyway.

He was most definitely grateful when Caelan woke up, no matter how much he told himself he was using his time effectively. He had been around when Caelan had woken up before today, of course, but usually he was reading, or writing, or drawing, or something. Now he couldn’t do any of that, he was trapped staring at the ceiling trying desperately to think of something to distract himself long enough. Maybe this was something that he had to get better at going forward, if this was going to happen to him again. Keeping his mind occupied when he couldn’t move. If he was honest, it would be more than helpful when Caelan fell asleep across his chest and pinned him down until he woke up.

Caelan shifted under the blankets, turning around and letting his hand make its way across the bed to find Lin lying next to him. It squirmed under the blankets until it found Lin’s chest, at which point it danced across his skin to lay heavily on his sternum.

It was something that he did a lot, whenever he just woke up. The unconscious grabbing to try and find where Lin had got to. The elf often wondered whether it was something that he did anyway, no matter where he woke up or who he woke up with. Another part wondered whether it was because of Lin’s tendency to wander about when he was bored in the middle of the night. Thinking about it, he couldn’t really decide which one he preferred. 

Lin still leant into the hand, though, letting Caelan physically move across to rest his head on his chest and groan in that annoyed way he always did when he woke up. Lin never understood, if it was this painful to wake up, why didn’t he just stay asleep until it wasn’t.

“Morning.” Caelan moaned, opening his eyes to look up at Lin. Usually he would look back, but right now he struggled to move his head and straining his eyes to look down was making him dizzy.

“Morning” Lin replied with a smile, closing his eyes again to let them relax. “How are you feeling?” he asked, genuinely curious and wanting to make sure that he was okay.

“Like I got hit by a train.” came the response, and Lin couldn’t help but chuckle a little. He felt guilty, of course, but also had the slight idea that Caelan might be exaggerating exactly how awful he felt. 

“Wow, you’re never gonna want to work with me again, huh?” Lin teased, allowing the smallest laugh to escape his lips alongside it. Hopefully, if he was right, Caelan wouldn’t be too mad about it.

“How are you feeling?” Caelan asked, and Lin couldn’t help but be surprised. He had remembered that he wasn’t gonna be feeling great this morning. Maybe he actually cared.

“Like I got hit by two trains” Lin responded, copying the half-elf’s cadence exactly as he did. “It’s gonna be a lounging around in bed day today.”

Caelan frowned, pushing up onto his elbows to stare at him. “You should sleep properly” he chastised, and Lin couldn’t help but flinch away. He’d always hated being told off for things, and being told off by Caelan was somehow even worse. Made him feel… small.

“I’m fine,” he responded and, okay, that made him feel even smaller. The whine that his voice took on was reminiscent of a small child. He hadn’t intended it, of course, but that was how it had ended up. “Sleeping makes it worse. When I trance I can wake up and be back to normal in seconds. When I sleep it takes me ages to actually wake up properly. Trust me, I’ve tried both of them.”  
Caelan huffed, rolling off him and moving to sit up. Lin had to physically hold back the depressed noise that threatened to erupt from him at the lack of contact.

“Sleep is good for you.” Caelan added, frowning over at the elf as he sat up on the edge of the bed. It took all of Lin’s energy to turn over and look him in the eye. Not that he would ever admit that. “Even my Mom sleeps most of the time, and she’s a full blooded elf like you so don’t you try pulling any of that “It’s just my biology” shit on me. It won’t work.

Lin huffed, closing his eyes again and letting gravity pull him into the most comfortable position it could. He felt Caelan stand up off the bed, moving around it to stand over him. Anyone else and he would have been scared, would have felt the adrenaline rush through his veins as he tried to figure out just what he would do next.

Instead he felt a hand in his hair, pulling it back and off his face to make him more comfortable, without even having to ask for it. He opened one eye to see Caelan lean down, pressing a quick kiss to his lips before standing up.

“Try to sleep. Please. I’ll go and get breakfast, and a drink, but then you need to try and get some sleep.”

Lin huffed. Food and water sounded good, but he didn’t want to risk falling asleep for it. Instead he smiled, nodding a little before closing his eyes again and wriggling a little to get comfortable.

“Alright. I’ll try. But I can’t promise anything. A century of habit doesn’t change overnight, you know.”

There was no way of knowing how long Caelan had been downstairs, not without counting the seconds he had been gone and he wasn’t quite that bored just yet. He closed his eyes, lying down, and he did try to sleep, he really did. 

But as soon as Caelan came back Lin was up again like nothing had ever happened. He knew exactly what had happened, in trying to fall asleep he had actually ended up trancing. Turns out that the methods that people told you to help you fall asleep, also let you fall easily into a trance. That knowledge might come in handy later, maybe, but for now it just reminded him how he had already failed his promise.

“Sorry.” He heard Caelan whisper, before sitting back on the bed with his back up against the headboard. “Didn’t mean to wake you up.”

Lin shrugged, opening his eyes and looking over at him. He didn’t want to admit that he was unable to really sit up. That would be far too embarrassing, and at least right now Caelan didn’t appear to know just how tired he was.

“It’s alright. Never actually slept. Tried to, promise, but it didn’t come. You know technically I tranced so that was double the sleep, kinda.” he responded, looking up at the half-elf just enough to see Caelan frown.

“It doesn’t work like that and you know it.” he responded with a flat voice, before reaching down and slowly dragging Lin to sit up next to him. Lin was more than a little grateful that he didn’t mention anything about just how weak he was. “Sure you recuperate your mind but your body doesn’t fix itself up the way that sleeping does.”

Lin narrowed his eyes as Caelan turned to hand him some of the pastries he had made the day before and a glass of water. “Since when did you become an expert on Elf physiology?” Lin snarked, before realising he was quite a bit more sarcastic than he intended to be.

“I’m not.” Caelan snapped back, narrowing his eyes at him again as he pulled a novel up onto his lap and opened it to the bookmark. “I just know how these things work. You forget my Mum is an elf. Now, eat up. Food might help you out.”

There was something in the way he talked that made Lin think that he was lying, but he didn’t want to call him out on it. In addition to that his stomach was all but grumbling and, yeah, maybe food would have been a good idea. 

It was something that Lin had never really experienced before. An easy day, a day where he didn’t need to do or think about anything. He just lay down in bed, blankets up to his chin just the way he liked it, as Caelan read to him from his book. Lin had read it before, of course, but that was actually a good thing in this situation as Caelan started halfway through the book.

It was obvious that he was a performer at heart. He added life into the story as he read, and Lin felt like he was experiencing the old tale for the very first time. He did voices, too, as he went along and submerged Lin entirely into the universe he was weaving.

Lin was left wondering whether or not Caelan was adding a little magic into his performance, and not for the first time. True, magic tended to go wonky around Lin, but he frequently wondered if Caelan was casting on him without him even realising. It was definitely a possibility.

The half-elf brought him more food, too, in the middle of the day. Lin was more than a little grateful for it, he could just about struggle to sit up now, but nothing more than that. Caelan had, once again, just brought him leftovers but he couldn’t even begin to complain. This time it was a stew he had made a day or two before, along with the remainder of yesterday’s bread. For once Lin was glad for his habit of cooking far too much food. Usually the remainder would go to some of the homeless children who lived around the city, but he would have to make up for it with some more fresh food tomorrow.

Caelan stayed with him the whole day, apart from the one or two times he left to get more food and water. Not to mention he had started to stretch and work out as much as he could in the middle of the room, apparently not concerned that Lin was watching him carefully and with incredible interest.

He seemed to be working on his flexibility today, and Lin would have sworn he was actually just showing off on top of it. After his warm up he had been getting more and more impressive with his poses, moving very slowly as he did, and Lin didn’t know if it was for an actual reason or just to make it look better. Towards the end he stood up on his left tip toes, leaning backward until he was bent almost in half, and grabbing his right ankle. He slowly started to stand up again, bringing his right leg with him until it was pointed straight up to the ceiling and he was in some sort of vertical splits.

If Lin was being honest, it gave him sympathy pains just watching it happen.

After his workout he had cooled down just as carefully as he had warmed up, before coming back over to collapse on the bed next to Lin and grin at him like the cat that got the cream.

“Hey, enjoy that?” he asked with the biggest smirk across his face.

Lin leant forward, taking the side of his head in his hands gently and pulling him in for a kiss with the last of the energy he still had.

“It looked every bit as magnificent as it did painful” he chuckled in response, feeling more than hearing Caelan laugh against his skin. “Maybe I should run some tests on you in that way, huh?”

Caelan pulled away slightly, before tugging Lin over to rest his head on his chest. This was one of Lin’s favourite places to be. Caelan was warm, and the right mixture of hard muscles under soft skin. He enjoyed the beat of his heart and the way it forced his ears to twitch in time, and the methodical rhythm of his breathing. If Lin were to sleep anywhere, it would most probably be here.

“I’ve been thinking about your tests.” Caelan finally responded, not that Lin was really listening over the way the half-elf ran his fingers through his hair. “And I think I have a way to improve them.”

“Oh?” Lin answered, unable to help the way his ear pricked up in curiousity and immediately poked Caelan in the jaw.

“That is… if you wouldn’t be offended with me suggesting something to you. I know it’s your job, after all, and it makes me seem like a bit of a prick if I come in and think I can do it so much better.”

Lin shook his head quickly, hoping he could reassure the man that he wasn’t overstepping some non-existent line.

“No, no.” he responded quickly. “I’m always open for ways to improve. You’re coming this from a completely different angle to me, and you’re gonna see things I don’t.”

“I was just wondering…” Caelan continued, and the way he seemed nervous about what he was about to say worried Lin more than anything else. “Well, I know from experience fighting a real person is a world apart from fighting a dummy. It makes you want to push your magic farther, harder, and well… I have a lot of spells that focus on twisting people’s minds rather than physical damage. You can’t twist the mind of inanimate objects.”

Lin nodded along, it was an issue he had come up against in his tests many times before. He had observed the fighting pits to try and get data before, but it was hard to get it from fights that he couldn’t replicate over and over again. It was rare to see someone fight the same creature twice, if it had ever even happened at all.

“I’m aware, it’s just I obviously can’t pit you against me, so…”

“What about a one person fight pit?” Caelan interrupted, making Lin’s ears flick in mild annoyance. “You must have those. Like two people go in, one comes out.”

Lin’s ears dropped down so far they were almost painful, and he hoped beyond hope that Caelan either didn’t notice or didn’t know what it meant.

Of course things like that existed. His sibling had fought in them frequently, and Lin had even used some of the champions as test subjects in the past, until they failed and became useless to him.

There was one problem with the solo fighting pits he knew.

People fought to the death.

His brain whirred as he tried to think of something to say, some excuse why he wasn’t going to take up Caelan’s offer that was something other than “I can’t bear to see you get hurt.”

“It’s hard to get reliable results.” he ended up saying, hating the way his voice cracked. “Whoever the person is, they’re an unknown entity to me. I would have to be able to test them, too, and it’s incredibly hard to get people to agree to that.” He could feel himself rambling, of course he could, but he couldn’t stop now. “And, you know, they very rarely let me get close to places like that. They tend not to like collateral damage, especially if that collateral damage is someone that people will look for if they suddenly disappear.

There was nothing but silence from Caelan for a good while, and Lin had the worst fear that he had somehow fucked it all up. This was it, this was the coin that broke the Dragon’s back. Caelan wouldn’t trust him anymore, and he would leave, and Lin would be alone again, and…

“How about your big fighting gym downstairs?”

Caelan broke the silence, and along with it the bubble of anxiety that had built up around Lin as he spoke.

The gym hadn’t been used in half a century, not since Lin’s sibling had moved out. His brother preferred tricks of the mind, like Caelan, and Lin had never really had any use for it so he had avoided it like the plague. All it seemed to bring for him was bad memories.

“What about it?” he asked, finally mustering the strength to turn his head and look up at Caelan, rather than down the length of his stomach.

“Why not find someone else who will have tests run on them, and we can hold our own fight pit here. Safer, more controlled” the half-elf clarified, and Lin couldn’t lie. It was a good idea. Plenty of health potions on hand, no rules that said you had to take your opponent’s last breath.

It could work.

And Lin had the perfect candidate already.

“Alright.” he finally said, nodding along with his words. “I will take you up on that. A small, independent, personal fight… club. One of my old test subjects who I haven’t seen in a while might do. He’s… an odd guy, sure, but he’s amazing in the battle field. And I trust him not to seriously hurt you.”

Caelan seemed to hesitate for a moment, but Lin didn’t notice. His brain was already running away with him.

“I’ll send word to him tomorrow. As soon as we’re both recuperated, the fight will start.”


	7. The Performer

Caelan was sat relaxing back on one of the sofa’s in what Lin used as his living room. Not only was there a large fireplace here, there were big comfortable sofa’s covered in pillows and blankets exactly the same as Lin’s bed. All of the books in here seemed to be fiction, so that’s what Caelan was busy doing now, burying his head into the newest book he had plucked off the shelves. 

He perked up when he heard a squeak of surprise from Lin somewhere across the hall, pausing as tried to hear the follow up he had agreed with Lin. The elf often squeaked when things unexpected happened, from dropping some cutlery to tripping over. After a few false alarms, where Caelan had rushed to see if anything was wrong, they had decided that if he really needed Caelan he would call his name immediately after the squeak.

Seeing as it didn’t come, Caelan relaxed down again, trying to get back into his book before hearing another squeal, this one far higher than anything that Lin had ever produced. He paused again, sitting up slightly as he listened out. Sure enough, another squeal, and Caelan knew that something was wrong.

He stood up, moving quietly as he did as to not alarm any intruder that happened to be in the house at the time. Lin really wasn’t making much of a noise, which he had to admit soothed his nerves a little, but definitely not enough to stop him from going and investigating.

At least the noise was easy to follow, what sounded like a mixture between injured animals and very excitable children squealing, and it was definitely more than one. The closer he got, the more he could hear Lin talking and laughing in a language he vaguely recognised as infernal, the language that his tiefling friend spoke often. He slowed his walk, less concerned that something bad was going on than he was before.

He found Lin’s office, standing awkwardly outside as he tried to figure out whether or not he should head in. Lin sounded relax, much more relaxed than he usually was when talking to other people in his office. More akin to when he was relaxing with Caelan than when he was usually doing business. The responding voice was deeper, almost scratchy, the exact kind of voice he expected to hear speaking the tongue of devils.

Caelan peered around the door, trying to look what was happening before letting the people inside knowing he was there.

The first thing he saw was Lin stood behind his desk, leaning back on his chair rather than sitting on it. He looked exactly like Caelan had left him this morning, hair down but brushed back over his shoulders and suit looking immaculate. He appeared relaxed, at least, a dumb smile on his face that showed Caelan more than anything else that everything was okay.

The other man was facing Lin, sitting on the edge of the desk with a long tail sticking out from his waistband and swishing behind him in a way Caelan knew was out of excitement. He was tall, probably taller than Lin if you took his horns into account, but more solidly built like an acrobat from what Caelan could see of his shoulders and arms. He had navy skin so dark it almost looked black, with a purple mohawk flopped to the side between large curled ram horns which looked like they were gilded. Caelan knew that was a permenant procedure, too, and he couldn’t help but wonder how long they had been like that. They certainly looked shiny and new, at any rate.

Perhaps the most shocking thing in the room was the tiny imps flying around. Well, three were flying around. Lin was holding onto one like a baby, rubbing it’s back in between it’s wings, and one of the other’s was perched on one of the tiefling’s horns. The other two… no, three, were zooming around the room, seemingly too fast to actually be taking anything in as they went.

Of course, it was too much wishful thinking that he wasn’t going to be spotted with so many pairs of eyes. All of a sudden one of the imps shrieked, the same excited shrieks that he had heard before. Two of them flew towards him fast, the last going back towards Lin and the tiefling.

Caelan braced for impact, knowing that even though the things were small at that speed they were gonna pack a punch when they hit. But the pain never came. Instead he heard a whistle, and the two imps kept flying, spinning around him before flying straight back to the tiefling.

Now he had turned around Caelan could see his face. Both of his eyes were pitch black, no pupils, no whites, just sclera’s. The way he smiled revealed razor sharp teeth through gold painted lips, and he gave an awkward little wave.

“Yo.” he called in Common, all of the imps hiding behind him and peering around him at Caelan. “Sorry, didn’t see you there. They can get… excitible.”

Caelan nodded, a little worried about there being literal small demons in the home, but Lin walked around to him, still cradling the one he’d had from the beginning in his arms.

“Hey Caelan.” he smiled, hanging back a little like he always did when they were in public. Caelan wasn’t sure whether or not he was embarrassed by public displays of affection, or just didn’t want to be seen doing those displays of affection with him. “Sorry, they just kinda teleported in. Otherwise I would have warned you.”

Caelan looked over at the imp, still looking a little concerned how it was just chilling with it’s head rested on Lin’s shoulder.

“I can make them change for you.” he heard the tiefling say, and could detect a hint of sadness in their tone. “I know they can kind of freak people out, so I can make them change into something a little more… palatable.”

Caelan shook his head quickly, making sure to keep his face even as he did. “I don’t want them to be uncomfortable. If this is what they like, this is fine.”

The difference in the tiefling’s face was like night and day. They grinned wide, hopping off the desk and making their way over to him with a sway in his hips. Now they were stood up Caelan could see the bright gold of their trousers, skin tight with large ovals down the side to the knee before opening up into a large flare that swished around them as they walked. Their shirt seemed to just be one long piece of light blue fabric, wrapped around their torso before being tied tightly behind their neck. Their ears glittered with golden piercings, longer ears than he had ever seen on a tiefling before, and a blue gem in a golden setting sat snugly above their belly button.

“Bicks.” they introduced themselves with another bright smile, holding out their hand. “You slept in my house.”

Caelan couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. Out of all of the people he had imagined to own the mansion in Winterdrift, this tiefling was miles from them.

“Caelan Harlaw. Nice to meet you. Thank you for letting me stay in your house. The elf lady, Evercia, is she your… wife?” he asked, proud of himself that he had remembered the person Lin had been painting all those weeks ago.

The fact that Bicks burst out into a laugh, a deep belly laugh that caused them to actually clutch at their stomach and seconds later all of the imps joined them as well.

“Hells, no. She’s my sister.” They paused, looking at Caelan before elaborating. “Adopted, of course.”

Caelan could feel himself blush now, embarrassed at the assumption he made, but Bicks continued talking to take even a little of the embarrassment away, a fact he was more than a little grateful for.

“These are my children, by the way. They can be a bit shy, especially around new people. But I can promise you, they’re sweethearts.” he smiled, before pointing them each out in turn. “Virtue, Grace, Silence, Patience.”

“And this little one’s Harmony.” Lin interrupted, still rubbing a finger between his imp’s wings gently. Now he was closer, Caelan could hear the imp purring quietly.

“Harmony has always loved Lin” Bicks added, reaching over and running their finger down the imp’s tail and watching it curl tight around their finger. “Dunno what he did to her but she always asks to come and visit.”

Lin blushes a little, ears fluttering slightly as he tilted his head down to kiss the imps forehead. 

“I don’t know what I did either, she’s just always gravitated to me. Not that I mind, she’s a cutie.”

Bicks grinned, tail swishing behind them excitedly as their ears began to twitch. Caelan couldn’t help but notice every time they did they tapped against their horns and made their earrings jangle loudly.

“Anyway, to the reason I’m here. Lin says you want to beat me up.”

Caelan instantly snapped to attention. He didn’t remember saying anything like that, and he had no reason to want to attack this person.

“I… what? No? I’ve only just met you, I’m not gonna just attack you.” he responded, looking at Lin for any sort of clarification he could give.

“Bicks is the person you’re going to be fighting to show me what you can do.” Lin explained gently, stepping slightly closer to Caelan and smiling sweetly.

The memory crashed over Caelan, but he still couldn’t help but look between the two of them with a mixture of shock and concern. 

“No offence but I can’t… My magic is an all or nothing kind of thing. I can’t hold it back, if I attack you I will hurt you. I don’t wanna…”

“Oh, don’t worry.” Bicks interrupted with a grin. “I literally cannot die.”

Caelan couldn’t help but level a stare at them, trying as hard as he might to figure out whether or not they were lying. He had to be honest, he was never the best at judging other people’s sincerity, but he was sure that Bicks was telling the truth right now and that worried him. Add to that he was sure that Lin wouldn’t put his friend at risk like that and he couldn’t help but narrow his eyes.

“It’s true, I’m older than Lin and I don’t look a day over twenty-five.” they added, and Caelan could hear Lin tutting beside him.

“Bicks, stop it. Caelan, they’ll be fine. I wouldn’t put either of you in actual danger. Believe me when I say that this is a lot safer than letting you into a fighting pit.” he soothed, taking another step closer and Caelan began to wonder if he was subconsciously coming towards him. “I have plenty of healing potions, and you both have healing spells. Everyone will be coming out of this alive.”

Caelan paused, still looking between them, but especially at the imps that were beginning to take their places on Bicks’ shoulders and horns. 

“And what about the little ones? They won’t get in the way, will they?”

Bicks shook their head, looking down at one of the imps and starting to speak in Infernal again. They all looked at them in interest, the most focused Caelan had seen them. He started to wonder if they couldn’t actually speak Common.

“They’ll be staying with me.” Lin explained, voice dropped low so he didn’t speak over Bicks. “Bicks is explaining that the two of you are playing, that you’re not actually hurting them. They’ll be far out of the way, don’t worry.”

Caelan took a deep breath, trying to weigh up the possibilities. It would be fun, sure, to completely let loose like that. A good excuse to show off for Lin, as well, which was definitely something that he was finding himself wanting to do more and more.

“Okay… Okay. I can do that. It might hurt, are you okay with that?” he explained to Bicks, keeping an eye on the imps in case they actually could understand him.

“As long as you’re okay with me possibly hurting you. Not bad, but it’s sure to sting.” they responded with a grin, and Caelan could see they were every bit as excited as he was.

“Wouldn’t be a challenge without it, would it?” Caelan answered, and Bicks’ ears started to twitch faster. “So… where are we going to do this?”

“The gym will work, won’t it?” Bicks asked, looking over at Lin as all of the imps started to fly over towards the elf instead.

Lin simply nodded, turning around to head towards the door to the office and then further to head down the stairs. “Either that or outside, but the gym is probably best in case you get too over excited. I don’t want people turning up asking questions if you call in lightning strikes again.

“That was Ever, that wasn’t me” Bicks responded, and Caelan watched the way they almost bounced in excitement as they walked. He wasn’t worried about being hurt, per se. If Lin promised he wouldn’t get too badly injured, Caelan trusted him. He just… well.

He had always been competitive, and damn but he wanted to win this. Bicks intrigued him, he had no idea how they fought, or whether they even used magic, but he supposed that way Lin could get a true representation. It wasn’t as if he knew his opponents capabilities every time he got into a fight with a random person on the street.

Caelan had been in the gym before, once or twice. It was a large room on the lower floor of the mansion, in the wing furthest away from where Lin’s room and lab were. Lin had told him it had been designed and owned by his sibling, and that’s why it was set up the way that it was.

There was a large, open space in the middle of the room, which Caelan supposed was where they would be fighting in. On the outside there had been a multitude of gymnastics equipment, bars and rings and everything someone would need to put on a magnificent performance. He had asked about the lack of protective equipment the first time he had gone into there, to which Lin had just chuckled and said “Ro always said he was too good to ever need protective equipment.” Caelan couldn’t help but think that was dumb and cocky.

He had been into the room a few times to work out, using the equipment to his own benefit. It was most definitely some of the highest quality equipment he had ever had the pleasure of working out on, not that he had done much in the past.

This time, as they were walking up to it, Lin broke off towards the door before the gym. Caelan had never felt the need to go in there before, but Lin had already explained it led to the mezzenine above the gym where people could watch on behind protective barriers. Apparently when Ro had been practicing he had developed a habit of creating fire storms in the room and after a few singed eyebrows and burn treatments their father had decided to add somewhere where spectators could be safe from any wild magic flying around. 

Bicks led the way into the gym, already pulling their arms across the front of their body in a stretch as their tail swayed lazily behind them.

“So, how did you want to do this?” they asked with a grin, turning around as they got to the middle of the room and started stretching even more. “I always like to warm up. Can’t let any pulled muscles get in the way, you know?”

Caelan nodded, standing thirty feet away from them and slowly stretching himself. He didn’t exactly trust them not to pounce at any second. He kept his eyes securely on them, but if anything they didn’t seem to be making any moves to betray him.

He let his eyes gaze up to see Lin on the balcony above them, three of the imps hovering lazily around him as the other two rested on his shoulders. Caelan didn’t have a chance of remembering all of their names, so he didn’t even try. 

Lin already had his notebook out, furiously scribbling something in there even as he looked back at Caelan and gave an encouraging smile. That was something, at least. Caelan truly believed Lin thought he would win and, well. If this tiefling was powerful enough to be immortal, like they had claimed, that was truly a compliment Caelan would take any day of the week.

“I’m ready when you are.” He heard Bicks say, and looked over to see them stood casually facing him, black eyes almost burrowing into his soul and tail swishing behind them as if they didn’t have a care in the world.

Caelan took a deep breath, closing his eyes for just a second to centre himself.

He was ready.


	8. The Fight

Caelan looked Bicks up and down, working out all of the tactics he could in his head as he went. They were taller, probably stronger too judging by the definition on their muscles. But Caelan was fast, never met anyone faster, and fuck he could dodge out of the way of almost any attack.

He raised himself up onto the balls of his feet, getting himself ready to strike at the first opportunity. Bicks appeared like they did the same, and that at least told Caelan that they were used to this. At least he wasn’t beating up a complete beginner.

Even as it was, Caelan decided to make the first move. He’d always been fast, his father had even been jealous of it as a kid, and things hadn’t changed. He channelled some magic to add to his speed, running forward as he sang under his breath to charge up the spell in between his hands. This wasn’t a time for holding back. It was rare he got the chance to show off, and he was definitely not going to waste it now.

When he got to within about ten feet he jumped, landing hard on the floor and resting his hands down on the ground. The spell he had been preparing got released on impact, and everything suddenly happened at once.

The ground trembled as the energy moved into it from Caelan’s hands, and he felt his hair being blown back by the force of it. It slowly rose up, creating a wave of destructive force that sped the remaining distance towards Bicks. The tiefling brought their hands up, the first sparks of a spell obviously intended to counter it appearing in their palms, but it was far too late.

The wave hit, shooting Bicks back thirty feet towards the wall. They tumbled in midair, tail desperately twitching to try and help balance themselves and for a second Caelan thought they had managed it as their right foot made contact with the floor. They wobbled for a second, before their tail moved again, and they placed their other foot down carefully. 

Their grin once again showed sharp, pointed teeth, this time with more malice than they had shown up in Lin’s office.

Before Caelan’s eyes shadows started to emerge from the tiefling’s skin, growing and solidifying as they swirled around them and obscured them from view. Their dark skin was almost impossible to see, and it only the glint of what little light that made it through on the gold covering them that told Caelan they were even still there.

Caelan had never seen anything like this before, this kind of magic was new to him. He had no idea why Bicks was looking so smug, or what effects the magic might impart if he got too close. So taking all of that into account, he took a few steps back and prepared one of the nastiest spells he had in his arsenal.

It was a new spell, one that he had learnt since he had been staying with Lin. It had been out of pure curiosity, he had seen Lin researching it a couple of times since they had returned back to the house. He had said it was what had hit him and caused all of his nightmares.

Obviously Caelan had needed to learn it.

He knew that he wasn’t going to be anywhere near as good as the person who had cast it on Lin, but for this purpose that was perfect. He didn’t want to give Bicks any lasting effects, after all.

His song changed in tone and pace, and he planted his feet onto the floor in preparation. He had never actually cast this before, it was impossible to either practice or cast on some kind of target that wasn’t alive.

Bicks paused for a moment, and even started to backtrack as they felt the effects of the spell overtaking them. For a second Caelan started to second guess what he was doing, especially as there didn’t seem to be much of a reaction to start with. 

But then Bicks started to fold in front of Caelan’s eyes, hands coming up to the sides of their head as they started to scream. Caelan would never know what they were seeing in their head, and Lin had never told him what his own nightmares had been like as a result of the spell and so far all his research had told him was that the images were tailored to the person or persons experiencing them at any one time.

A part of him realised that he actually didn’t want to know what he was currently forcing Bicks to experience.

The tiefling fell to their knees as Caelan carried on singing, wanting to make sure his spell was complete. Their eyes were tightly closed, streaming tears as they sank down further towards the floor.

And then, as Caelan watched, they stood again and started to run. They were faster than anything Caelan had ever seen, much faster than even he had moved earlier, and before he could even think they had become lost within the shadows of their own creation.

Caelan would have been worried, if he didn’t already have his hooks dug deep in the tiefling’s consciousness with his spell. He sang louder, knowing they would still have to be close, and sure enough he heard another scream of fear.

Bicks appeared again, fully slumping to the ground at the other side of the room. Caelan paused for a moment, stopping his singing as he waited for something to happen.

The shadows around Bicks had gone, which at least told him that the tiefling was unconscious, at least. Either that, or they were doing a very, very good job of faking it.

Caelan looked up at Lin, still stood on the balcony and scribbling down on his notepad. The imps were all floating around him, looking more worried by the second and squeaking in what he guessed was in Infernal.

And that’s what made him feel bad enough to break every rule he had ever set for himself, and walk closer to Bicks.

They definitely looked unconscious, a small stream of black blood trickling from their ear onto the floor. They were breathing, although it was shallow, but that was the extent of their movement.

As soon as he was in range he started singing, a quiet song that he had learnt from an old friend. He had always associated it with his healing magic, no matter how much he had tried to forget or use a different song.

The magic seemed to work fine, as he expected it too, and he paused for a moment to watch the effects. Bicks came to with a gasp of breath, eyes opening wide and darting around as they took everything in.

“Motherfu… Dammit. You’re good.” they chuckled, tilting their head back to look at Caelan. “Thanks for the healing.”

Caelan nodded, moving closer in order to use one of his better healing spells. The first was good, sure, but he knew that he would be able to get something better if he got a little closer.

He crouched down closer to Bicks, resting two hands on their chest and pouring magic into them. Not too much, just enough to get them well and truly back on their feet.

The blood that had been welling up in their ear started to stop, and then dry up. The small dip in their chest where one of their ribs had been smashed raised with a sickening snap and twisted back into place.

If he hadn’t have looked down at the noise, trying to ignore the feelings it sent hurtling through him, he wouldn’t have noticed Bick’s hand moving viper quick towards his ankle, shrouded in that same dark shadow he had seen before.

Caelan yelped, leaping up and backwards out of the way of the hand and frowning deeply as the spell Bicks had been trying to cast dissipated into the air.

“Yo, what the fuck?” he exclaimed, moving out of pure instinct to direct a kick at the tiefling’s head. It didn’t connect, unfortunately, and Bicks even returned the favour by trying to quickly lash out with their tail to no effect.

“I healed you, you fucking prick.” Caelan spat, even as Bicks rolled over onto their back and started to giggle. “I thought it was over.”

“You tried to kick me while I was down!” Bicks giggled, sitting themselves up while their tail sweeped behind them excitedly.

“Because you tried to attack me!” Caelan retorted, crossing his arms and still looking down at the tiefling in annoyance.

“It might not have been an attack.” the tiefling chuckled, pushing themselves to their feet and starting to stretch out again. Caelan tried not to wince as their joints popped in tandem.

“Was it?” he asked, cocking one eyebrow in genuine confusion.

“Oh, yeah. Totally. I was trying to give you the plague.” came the response, and after a second all of the imps flew down and started to ineffectively pull on Caelan’s clothes.

“What the fuck.” Caelan exclaimed, ignoring the imps and their apparent attacks. They certainly weren’t hurting him in the slightest. “I was over. I healed you.”

“Nah, I was still fine.” Bicks grinned, and with a wave of their hands all of the imps made their way over to them, instead, and sat up on their shoulders and horns.

“You were unconscious.” Caelan spat, keeping his arms crossed in front of him and his gaze strong.

“Yeah, just a little bit, and not for long.” came the reply, and Caelan was done trying to argue. He moved to head back up to Lin, only to be surprised that he was already walking in the door. Obviously he had been aware the fight was over, as well. 

“Lin, your friend is a dick.” Caelan announced as the elf walked over. Something was… off about him. His walk was stiff, and almost unnatural. Caelan would ask about it later.

“Yeah, they… they are that. Um. That was incredible. What you just did. I was settling in for a longer fight.” he added, moving what would be uncomfortably close to Caelan if it wasn’t for the history they both had. 

“Yeah, I went easy on you.” Bicks piped in, and Caelan just turned to glare at them. The half-elf flicked his hand, causing small, harmless sparks to shoot off towards Bicks’ face. To the tiefling’s credit, they didn’t flinch.

“Well, whatever. I won. What do I get?” Caelan shot back. He wasn’t in it for a reward, not really, and the smug satisfaction of knowing that he won so easily was more than enough for him. But he wasn’t going to let them cotton onto that if he could help it.

“I’m sure Lin will come up with a more than adequate award” Bicks added, and Lin was close enough to hit Caelan with one of his ears as it shot down in embarrassment. A quick tilt of his head revealed that the elf was bright red, so embarrased that the blush reached up to the tips of his ears. Caelan had seen it one or two times before, sure, but it really was quite rare.

“I… um. Yeah, I’ll cook you dinner or something?” Lin offered, stammering to himself as he did. “I’ll… yeah. Okay.”

Caelan could see Bicks smirk out of the corner of his eye, gathering all the imps closer to him with a grin. “Yeah, well, you’ll be eating something alright.”

Lin opened and closed his mouth for a second, like he was desperately trying to form words, but he was cut off by Bicks’ laughter echoing around the room.

“Well, Caelan.” they continued. “It has been a pleasure meeting you.” They bowed down so low they were almost folded in half, and each of the imps repeated the gesture in some sort of obscure dance. “It was one of the best fights I have had in a long time, and I hope for a repeat performance sometime soon. Maybe next time I won’t hold back as much?”

Caelan was about to respond, something scathing, something clever and witty, but before they could Bicks disappeared in a cloud of black smoke and golden sparkles.

“God. They were fucking full of themselves, right?” Caelan sighed, before turning around to look at Lin. Without any hesitation the elf pulled him in for a kiss, clinging onto Caelan’s arms as hard as he could muster.

Caelan was taken aback, sure, but still kissed Lin back with abandon. It dawned on him slowly that this was what Bicks meant.

It was Caelan’s turn to smirk. I would be an interesting evening, sure.

Caelan lay back that evening, resting his head on Lin’s chest as they both recovered. He couldn’t help but feel smug, having won against someone that had obviously done well enough with themselves to live in such a large mansion. And he had done it with such style, too.

“I had no idea you were that good at your job.” Lin chuckled, the sound of it reverberating through his chest and into Caelan’s ears. 

“Of course I am, I told you I was good the first time we met.” Caelan laughed back, pushing himself slightly closer to Lin as he did. “I just don’t like to brag too much.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” Lin laughed, running a hand through Caelan’s hair gently. “I’m gonna hold you to that next time you’re bragging at me, you know that?”

Caelan laughed back, poking Lin in the side and enjoying the way he squirmed underneath him as it tickled. 

They stayed quiet for a little while longer, before Lin took a deep breath underneath him, and Caelan knew that something was coming.

“I was wondering… you know that I kept you on to do some other jobs for me?” he asked, quietly in a way that made Caelan know that whatever was coming next was big.

“Yeah. Offer still stands if you need me to do something.” Caelan responded, mind racing as he tried to figure out what exactly Lin was going to ask.

“I have an uncle.” Lin said, voice slow as if he was choosing his words carefully. “He’s my father’s younger brother. If my parents had died before I turned one hundred, all of my father’s estate, and the universities, would have gone to him.”

Caelan nodded, it made perfect sense. That was how elves traditionally do things.

“He… doesn’t like the fact he got nothing. He likes the direction that I am taking with the universities even less.” Lin continued, and Caelan wriggled around so he could look up at him easier. 

“What do you mean by that?” he asked, genuinely curious as to what was happening.

“I’ve been… changing the way the universities are run. Up until this point we only admitted elves, and only taught Wizardry. But I immediately opened it up to other races, and slowly we’re starting to accept more and more as students. And now I am trying to recruit people that can teach some of the other methods of magic, sorcery, druidry, those kind of things.” Lin explained, slipping into that tone of voice he used when he was explaining something to his business partners whenever Caelan overheard them.

“That… sounds like a good thing, though?” Caelan responded, looking up at him to see that he had his eyes resting closed.

“It is a good thing. But my uncle doesn’t see that.” he sighed, pulling Caelan in closer by his shoulder.

“What do you want me to do about it? Teach bardic magic? Because… I’m really not very good at teaching and...” Caelan replied, easily shuffling closer and throwing his arm over Lin’s chest.

“I need you to kill him.” Lin interrupted, and Caelan looked up to see if his face was straight. It most definitely was.

Caelan didn’t quite know what to think. He had watched Lin when there had been attempts on his life before, but this was an assassination attempt. This was Lin asking Caelan to kill someone in cold blood.

“There’s rumours flying around that he’s about to send people to kill me. That’s what Bicks and I were talking about earlier. Albion, the other man that lives with them, always has his finger on the pulse of… pretty much everyone’s business. And he heard about an illegal bounty on my life that must have been placed by my uncle.”

Caelan pressed his mouth together in a thin line, really not liking the information that there was a bounty on Lin’s life, and especially not liking the fact that his friends apparently knew and weren’t doing anything about it.

“What did you want me to do?” he asked, not really seeing how killing the man would help if the bounty was already there.

“Arbelladon dies. My friend Albion gets the word out that he was the one to set the bounty. As soon as people know the man setting up the bounty is dead they’re not gonna bother trying to claim it anymore.” Lin explained.

Caelan had to admit that Lin obviously had this all worked out. It was a good plan, in theory, but the elf was definitely putting all of his trust in his friend correctly getting the word out.

Caelan would definitely not have taken a job if there was even the smallest hint that the bounty wouldn’t end up being paid. 

“I’ll plan it all.” Lin continued. “I know his routines, and his house inside out. It should be very easy to do, I just need you to pull the metaphorical trigger, so to speak. Then I’ll set some rumours around as to why he would have been killed.”

Caelan took a deep breath. He had done more dangerous jobs. He had killed less deserving people. Thinking about it, there was really no reason he should say no.

“Alright.” he finally spoke, nodding a little as he did. “I’ll do it. Just… point me in the right direction, I guess.


	9. The Assassination

Lin sat with Caelan in the courtyard, appearing to relax back on the bench where in reality he was keeping an eye on everyone milling around around them, or sitting eating their lunches.

Not that anyone would be able to tell. He was wearing dark tinted glasses, obscuring exactly where he was looking at any given time. Add to that that Caelan had disguised him as a slightly shorter, dark skinned human man, and he shouldn’t be suspected as being Lin Chasso unless someone was specifically looking for him. Even then, Caelan had assured it was very, very hard to see through his disguise spell. He trusted the half-elf implicitly, of course, but it still sent a jolt of fear up his spine every time someone looked at him for too long. 

“He specialises in defense magic.” Lin drawled, trying to look to anyone else in the area that they were having a boring business conversation. They were in the middle of the business district, after all. “So you’ll have to get through that, first. My advice is to sneak up and stun him, force him to drop his defenses, and then kill him after they’ve fallen.”

Caelan nodded, his appearance only a little jarring as a very pale skinned wood elf. As long as Lin didn’t look him in the face for too long, he could just about deal with the change. It was still the same Caelan underneath, after all. 

“Any weaknesses that you know of?” Caelan asked, and Lin could tell he was surveying the area just as much as Lin was. He wondered what exactly he was looking for, and how much it differed from what Lin was looking for. 

“He’s a… let’s say traditional wizard. So he isn’t the most physically capable, nor does he have the best resistance to poisons. Try and damage his body, not his mind.” Lin replied, carefully eyeing two elves as they walked past rather too close for comfort. “Other than that I couldn’t tell you. He’s lactose intolerant, if that helps.”

He heard Caelan laugh a little at that, before stifling it. He was supposed to be a professional business man, laughing at jokes wasn’t supposed to be in his wheelhouse. Lin did have to admit, though, that Caelan was doing an amazing job at keeping up with his new persona.

“So I’m gonna slowly kill him by slipping him cheese in his meals, sounds like a plan.” Caelan responded, keeping that same deadpan voice that would be important if someone else was listening in. 

“Not sure what else to tell you.” Lin replied, resisting the urge to reach over and squeeze Caelan’s thigh. They were business partners, after all, not lovers. “You’re the expert, here, I have no idea what I’m doing.”

He felt Caelan sigh next to him, and again the urge to shuffle closer to him was almost impossible to resist.

The only thing that stopped him was when he spotted someone out of the corner of his eye.

Arbelladon Chasso made his way out of the building of his office, stepping out into the courtyard where Lin and Caelan were sat. He was dressed in the same traditional robes that Lin was used to seeing him in, the golden fabric billowing out around his legs as he walked. His dark hair had been pulled back into complex braids, but they still fell most of the way down his back. Lin knew they had been meticulously crafted by one of his many servants that morning. 

Lin’s heart almost stopped when his uncle looked directly over at him, red eyes matching his and seeming to look straight through his disguise. One eyebrow raised, and Lin knew that what he did now could be his undoing.

He simply dropped his chin a little, instinctively dropped his ears even though they couldn’t be seen. It was an act of submission, and one Lin would not usually be seen dead making to his uncle. Despite his age, he was still of a higher social standing than the man in front of him. But as anyone else, and especially as a half-elf, he would have been required to admit he was less important than the elf in front of him. 

This seemed to please Arbelladon, the man simply turning away and heading along his usual route. Lin tried hard not to visibly sigh in relief, staying with his back straight as he looked at Caelan out of the corner of his eye.

“That him?” Caelan asked as soon as he was out of hearing range and Lin nodded as he watched Arbelladon walk across the courtyard and towards one of the streams that ran through the centre of the city.

“That’s my uncle, yes. He’ll have gone to a quiet place on the river in order to fish. Follow the river down and you should find him somewhere away from prying eyes.” Lin responded, looking back over at Caelan and trying to judge what he was feeling. Was he as nervous as Lin was? Did his heart beat as fast?

The half-elf simply nodded, taking a breath before moving to stand. Lin stopped him quickly, grabbing his wrist without thinking and taking a moment to check no one had been looking at them. As soon as he figured out that he was in the clear, he opened his jacket and pulled out his dagger, handing it slowly to Caelan.

He saw the half-elf’s eyes widen, looking between Lin and the dagger slowly before taking the handle.

“Are you sure?” he asked, and Lin just nodded in return. 

“It may not protect you the same way it protects me, but it’s a good dagger. Plus the spell makes it never miss it’s target if it’s to protect me. And, you know, killing Arbelladon will protect me, in a round about way. I don't know if the magic will work like that but… it doesn't hurt, right?"

Caelan took another deep breath, before taking the handle and swapping out one of the daggers in his belt. He handed a plain dagger back to Lin, making sure to pass him the handle carefully.

“This may not be enchanted like yours, but it will still be better than nothing if something goes down. Stay here. I’ll come back as soon as I’m finished, and we will head home. If I’m not back in thirty minutes, head back home before the magic wears off and I will meet you there.”

Lin nodded, secretly praying that Caelan didn’t take longer than half an hour. He hated the way his heart was elevated in fear, and he didn’t even want to think about what would happen if Caelan failed or worse, got hurt because of him.

He watched Caelan's back, contemplating a prayer for the first time in nearly a hundred years. The only thing that stopped him was the certainty that there wasn’t even a God who wanted to listen. 

The wait for Caelan to return was heart wrenching, and one of the longest waits of his life. Lin knew this courtyard, he had been visiting it since before he could remember, but it all took on a menacing air today. Every person walking across was someone who knew who he was, or knew what was going on somehow. Every time someone looked at him his heart almost stopped, preparing for them to walk over and confront him on the crime that was currently in motion.

In the end Caelan didn’t end up taking anywhere near the thirty minute time limit he had given him, and Lin would be eternally grateful for it. The half elf came to sit next to him within ten minutes, reclining next to him as if nothing had happened in between times.

“It’s done. I even made it look like an accident. Poor man drowned in the river after falling in and hitting his head, what a way to go.” he said calmly, as if he was just telling Lin about a small change in the weather.

Lin looked over to him, before nodding and moving to stand. To anyone else their lunch breaks had simply finished, and they were heading back into work. The blessing of doing this in the middle of the day.

Within seconds Caelan was beside him, walking along at a casual pace. That was essential here, not giving anyone a reason to know who they were. Not giving anyone a reason to remember them. 

They carried on like that, talking about fake business talk. Well, Lin spoke about fake business talk, he knew exactly what to say and how to say it, and Caelan just nodded along. That was all that was needed to blend in around here.

As soon as they were far enough away to not raise suspicion Caelan ducked into an alleyway, and Lin followed afterwards. Lin looked around, knowing without bragging that he would be more likely to spot something going wrong than the half-elf was.

When he was certain they were safe he turned back to Caelan, a smile breaking across his face as he leant forward in excitement.

“We did it! We really did it! We got away with it!” he exclaimed, still keeping his voice quiet before pulling Caelan into an excited kiss. 

Caelan kissed him back, which Lin appreciated more than he could put into words. He stumbled back from the force of the half-elf falling into him, leaning up against the dirty brick wall for support. He kept Caelan pressed to him with all of his strength, though, the adrenaline coursing through him making it so he couldn’t think of doing anything else.

It was a long moment before Caelan pulled away, looking up at Lin with a smirk. 

“You good? Anyone would think you had a thing for this or something.” he joked, and Lin could feel his face heating up with the blush that covered it.

“It’s… we should celebrate, right?” he responded with a giggle, still keeping his hands on Caelan’s hips as he looked down at him. “We just got rid of the guy trying to kill me, that’s… amazing. Worth a celebration. We should get good food, good drinks, go home and… celebrate!”

Caelan chuckled at that, holding back onto Lin’s waist in return before reaching up onto his tiptoes to peck Lin’s lips one more time before settling back down on the floor. “Well then. We had better go shopping then, hadn’t we?”

Lin had, maybe, gone a little over the top. He was dashing about the kitchen, preparing a full traditional Elvish meal. Seven smaller courses, each with a variety of ingredients, and it was a difficult undertaking. He would never complain, though. He liked how it tested him, tested his multitasking, all of his skills pushed to the limits. Usually you would have servants making this meal, each person their own cog in the a well oiled machine, and the fact he could do this himself was a point of pride for him.

The fact that Caelan was sat in the kitchen keeping him company was just the icing on the top of the cake.

The half-elf was drinking a non-alcoholic cocktail, after informing Lin that he was completely tee total for the first time since they had met. Lin had wondered, but knowing for sure was always useful. Lin himself never tended to drink, he never cared for the feeling of being drunk or the taste of the alcohol that got him there. He was talking about everything and nothing, asking about the ingredients and the recipes, and Lin was happy to answer him. 

Finally Lin sat down with their food, still on his smaller kitchen table and served the first course, a selection of elvish dumplings with a dipping sauce, and they both started to eat. The rest of the meal was yet to come, but for now it was fine cooking away.

“You know, it hurts to say this when we’re supposed to be celebrating, but I am probably going to be a little busy over the next few days. Arbadellon didn’t have any schools under his power, but he had businesses. Most of them will go to his son, but I will still have to be around for the funeral, and as an impartial witness to a lot of the business affairs.” he explained, picking up a dumpling and popping it into his mouth whole.

Caelan nodded as he dipped one of the dumplings into the less spicy sauce, holding it in his hand as he replied. “You’re a relative that doesn’t get anything in the will, and they think you’re gonna be impartial?”

Lin shrugged, swallowing the dumpling and sitting back. He had noticed Caelan wasn’t eating any of the spicier sauce, so decided he was only going to eat that for the rest of this meal. After that? Well, he just won’t make it again.

“I was never going to get anything though. That’s how the Chasso’s have always worked. The oldest son gets everything, no one else even gets a look in. Hence why I got all of my father’s belongings, and my uncle got none. It… It causes some issues, as you can obviously tell. We wouldn’t be in this mess, otherwise.”

Caelan nodded, sitting himself back and taking another sip from his drink. “I find that happens, when people die, no matter what the tradition. People fight for the money left behind. Believe me, this guy was not the first person I’ve killed over an inheritance dispute.”

Lin nodded, sighing as he ate the last dumpling and stood up to do the washing up. “I wish I could say it was the first time I saw a death over inheritance, but that would be a lie too. People do strange things when money is involved. Things they would never do otherwise. I guess it’s as inevitable as death itself is.”

Usually Lin would stay in bed with Caelan for the whole night. Usually. But tonight? Tonight was different. Tonight he had important business to do. 

He rolled out of bed, standing straight on the floor and immediately starting to stretch to work out his tired muscles. The death of Arbelladon had been a long time coming. Lin could have been patient, could have waited longer, but the idiot placing a bounty on him simply forced his hand. 

Sure the businesses weren’t his immediately, but he was a step closer. Only one more man stood between him and owning the rest of the remaining schools in the university. 

Barlen Chasso, Arbelladon’s son, was the man who was causing him all of his problems right now. With his father gone, he was the last remaining person on the continent, possibly even the world, who also bore the Chasso name. He was a loose end in more ways than one.

Lin walked through to the bathroom, starting up the shower to an almost burning temperature and stepping into it. It was almost a cliche, that showers helped people think, but Lin found that it really did help him out. The feel of the water beating onto his skin, the sound of it blocking out everything else. In here Lin was alone, he was just Lin. No hiding, no charades, just him and his mind. In here he could really work things out.

In retrospect, hiring Caelan had been the best decision he had ever made. He would be the first to admit he wasn’t really thinking with his brain when he made that decision, but it had paid out for him in the end. The first time he hadn’t fully thought something through, and it had still worked out just fine.

Not only was the half-elf company, and someone that he could feel himself rapidly falling in love with, but he was skilled at combat too. It had become apparent the first time he had seen him fight back in the camp on the way to Winterdrift, but now he was really seeing the extent of his skills.

He had beaten Bicks, and the speed at which he had moved had shocked Lin to the core. Even with how concentrated he was on recording everything that happened he struggled to spot Caelan making his way across the room, it was so fast it was almost as if he teleported over.

Lin knew, academically, that Bicks was holding back. They had never really been a fighter if they didn’t have to be, and this was no exception. But even with that Caelan had taken them down so much faster than Lin ever could have anticipated.

And then the icing on top of the cake. Caelan was easy to convince to kill people for him.

He had killed Arbelladon without question, all he needed to know was about the bounty on his head. And while that story was true, it was a little bit of a stretch of the truth. But that didn’t matter. Knowing what Lin knew about Caelan, he knew it wouldn’t be difficult to spin him a similar tale about Barlen. After all, wouldn’t a man who was so close to inheriting all of the universities in the city be tempted to assassinate anyone who stood in his way?

Lin couldn’t help but laugh at that. Of course they would be tempted. Lin was doing exactly that right now.

He finally stepped out of the shower, ensuring that he wrapped a towel tightly around his waist and another tightly around his hair. He had always been of the opinion that looking good, and looking put together, was of the utmost importance to working at your peak capacity. Even if he wasn’t going to be seen doing his work tonight, it was still important that he looked the part.  
He couldn’t help but pause as he looked in the mirror. After all that had happened, he still looked the same. He hadn’t aged a day. No matter what was changing in his head, it would never show on his face.

It was the same face as it was before he became a murderer.

The same red eyes as his father, the same full lips as his mother, the same hard jawline that he had always told made him handsome. 

He couldn’t help but begin to laugh. It had been a plan many years in the making but finally, finally, it was all coming together.


	10. My Sunshine

Lin had been telling the truth, that he would be unavailable for a while. Not that Caelan really minded. 

He had stayed in the house, most days, simply taking time to avoid the lines of people visiting. Lin had been locked away in his office for the last few days, a steady stream of people visiting to pay their respects, or doing business, or both. All Caelan had to do was stay out of sight, and that was something he was incredibly good at.

Lin still somehow found time to leave left overs in the fridge for him, so he never went hungry. He made his own food one or two times, but he had to be honest after over a month of luxury his bland omelettes were somehow even more disappointing than they usually were. The elf was also often there whenever Caelan woke up in the middle of the night, even if he wasn’t there when he went to sleep. He’d wake up to find Lin wrapped around him, resting his head on Caelan’s chest, often purring softly.

It worried Caelan, the first time he heard that purr. Even though elves could pick and choose when they purred, half-elves were left with zero control over when and who they purred for. The fact Lin was trancing, though, left Caelan to believe that it was purely instinctual.

It showed him Lin’s emotions far more reliably than anything else. People only purred when they were well and truly comfortable, unless they were faking it, and Lin would have to be incredibly talented to fake it while in a trance. It was something that crept up on Caelan when he really didn’t want to think about it. Did Lin want far more out of this relationship than Caelan was willing to give?

Lin would always be gone by morning, though, leaving Caelan to wake up alone of his own accord. He really didn’t mind it, he was more than used to waking up alone, but he tried hard to ignore the side which really missed waking up with someone there.

Sometimes Caelan set himself out into the town, usually disguised. He had found if he went out as himself people fell silent around him, and it worried him that he was starting to be recognised, even if it was by people who he really didn’t care about. Would word of his presence get back to the men who were looking for him, maybe. But would they be stupid enough to attack what appeared to be a bastion of security? Probably not. They weren’t the type of men to go after people they didn’t stand a chance against.

But when he was disguised, the rumours about Lin abounded. Whispers of the Chasso curse swirling around, and people really did seem to believe that was what caused Arbelladon’s death. It was a pretty good alibi, Caelan had to admit.Not a single person in the city seemed to be suspecting that he was murdered, which was good for him. If everyone attributed a death to some imaginary curse rather than a quick blow to the head and being held underwater until you stopped breathing, that was better for everyone.

Saying that, though, Caelan was beginning to wonder whether or not the Chasso curse was real. If the whispers about the street were to be believed, there were only two people bearing the Chasso name to be untouched by it, and whether Lin had already felt the effects of the curse was debatable. His lack of magic, for one, and the way even magic performed by other people tended to lose control around him. 

Lin would probably say he had never been affected by the curse, but Caelan could tell differently. All of the times he looked longingly at Caelan doing small feats of magic, every time he struggled with something that should have been a simple spell. The time Caelan tried to heal a cut on his hand and only end up making it worse. If Lin truly was unaffected by the lack of magic in his life, he had gotten worse and worse at showing it the longer Caelan hung around.

Maybe the curse was real, and maybe he should be careful about spending the amount of time he was around Lin. But the more he thought, the more he wondered whether he should just talk to his mother about looking further into the curse, more for his own sake than anyone else's. His mother was the most powerful magic user he knew, and if she didn’t know something about detecting curses then someone in her clan definitely would.

For his own sake, he told himself. No one elses.

It had been one of his days out in the town, when he came back to Lin pacing in his office, talking to himself. He was obviously caught up with something, because he didn’t even notice Caelan walk past the corridor, or poke his head into the room to check it out.

Caelan knew that he shouldn’t eavesdrop, he did. But it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up, and one that he didn’t know when he would have again.

Lin was mumbling in Elvish, Common Elvish, luckily. Caelan wasn’t sure if they shared another variant. It was hard to pick out some words, no matter how close towards him he creeped, but Caelan wouldn’t give up just yet.

A cousin. Lin’s last living cousin, of course. Caelan had heard word about him from around the town, how he was inheriting all of his father’s businesses and fast becoming the richest man in the city. 

But apparently it wasn’t enough. Lin muttered about how Balen was looking at taking over the universities, becoming the sole owner of the Chasso Universities. But that would mean either buying Lin out, or straight up killing him. Neither of which Lin really wanted.

The elf was debating to himself whether to let Caelan risk it, or whether to hire assassins and, okay, that one hurt. Caelan didn’t want to boast, per se, but he was sure that he was the best man for the job. Having Lin hire someone else was more than a little hit to his ego.

“It’s not that, I just think it’s too big a job for you to do alone.” Lin said, louder this time, and Caelan knew that his game was up. He stood to attention, coming into the room more fully.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” he started, before Lin waved his hand and collapsed down onto the sofa in his office. 

“Don’t worry about it.” he responded, kicking his feet up onto the end of the sofa and pushing his shoes off his feet. “I don’t mind, really. How much did you hear?”

Caelan sighed, walking over to pick up Lin’s head and shoulders, and slip under him to rest him back down on his lap. “That you were having problems with your cousin. Yet another bounty on your head?”

Lin shook his head, closing his eyes and relaxing down into Caelan’s lap. “Not yet. But it’s looking like there could be soon. I’m debating the advantages of taking him out before he can even put a bounty on me. But that’s just… straight up murder, right? Makes me as bad as him?”

Caelan shook his head, before realising that Lin couldn’t see him and humming instead. “I don’t think so. It’s more… pre-emptive retaliation.”

Lin giggled at that, stretching his legs out long and pointing his toes. 

“I wanted you to know that I didn’t think you couldn’t do it, I’m just… Barlen is paranoid. He’s fortified his mansion, hired more guards. It’s gonna be hard for you to get close to him. It’s going to require a lot more planning than Arbelladon did.”

Caelan sighed, brushing Lin’s hair off his face gently. “So, what’s the plan, then? You’re the brains of the operation.”

Lin groaned as he wriggled and made himself comfortable on the sofa, eyebrows knitting on his face as he frowned.

“As far as I can tell, he has four guards, two that are posted up by the front door, and two that patrol. He will only see people by appointment, and he’s incredibly picky as to who he allows to meet him. We need to figure out how to both get in to talk to him, and also manage not to implicate ourselves in his murder.”

Caelan shuffled back on the sofa, thinking hard about just how he could do this.

“He would agree to a meeting with you, right?” he asked, and was met with Lin nodding slightly.

“But then we’d…” Lin started, before Caelan gently covered his mouth to shut him up.

“Let me think it through. So, people are going to know you went in. Which means that we’re going to have to do a slower means of death, one that kicks in after you leave. One that won’t be detected…”

He tapped his fingers in thought, making hollow noises on Lin’s chest as they rapped against his shirt. 

“We could get him to kill himself? I mean, he is in a highly stressed situation. He’s just lost his father. It’s always plausible that he could.” he finally added, and Lin hummed loudly as he thought.

“I could write a note in his handwriting. Suicide is… very frowned upon in Star Elvish society. It’s possible they wouldn’t really investigate it. So… Yes. Maybe. I still… I still want to hire someone to help us out. Distract some of the guards so they won’t come into his room while you’re doing whatever you need to do.”

Caelan thought for another moment, before sighing. Micah was actively looking for a job, and it was true that there was no one on this planet who was better at being distracting as he was. Lin’s whole… Lin’s entire aesthetic was exactly what Micah would enjoy. The flashy house, the expensive presents, the fancy suits. It made him feel bad to say it, but maybe it would slow down the relationship that Lin seemed to be forming in his mind. Not that Caelan didn’t necessarily want it, it was just… It was all very fast, and he wasn’t ready for it yet.

“If you need a distraction, I have the best man for the job. I can get a hold of him, and we can all plan it out together.”

Lin nodded, keeping his eyes closed as he relaxed back. “Will he be… you know? Discreet?”

Caelan thought about that for a second. It was true that Micah had much stronger morals than he did but… hopefully… 

“I’ll talk to him. He won’t let any secrets slip, I can promise that.”

Caelan sat waiting on the fountain at the front of Lin’s house, just inside the garden’s gate. He knew that the elf would be inside watching the two of them carefully, but allowed himself to try and relax.  
He had known Micah since the other man was born, and he was someone he could trust with almost anything. Getting him to come along to this job wasn’t just a favour for Lin, it was a favour for Micah as well. It wasn’t that he had been struggling finding jobs, per se, but he always seemed to be available whenever Caelan sent other jobs to him.

It wasn’t hard to spot Micah as he walked up to the gates. You didn’t really see many tieflings in Hyrendell, and the red of Micah’s skin stuck out among all the elves that Caelan had gotten used to seeing. 

The man had his lute strung across his back the same way Caelan often carried his dulcimer, but instead of the blades that Caelan used to compliment his magic Micah had a long bow and a quiver of arrows.

He waved as soon as he saw Caelan sitting there, jogging the last few hundred metres and pulling him into a hug. The half-elf couldn’t help but smile, tilting his head so the shorter man’s horns didn’t poke him in the chin.

“Caelan! You’ve been living here?” he asked with a bright grin, tail swishing excitedly behind him.

“I… I have been living here, yes.” he chuckled back, squeezing the tiefling tightly back for a second before letting go and leading him into the house.

“Holy shit, you lucked out there didn’t you?” the tiefling smirked, trotting along side him with a stupid grin on his face. Caelan suddenly realised just how much he had missed it.

“Excuse you, I worked incredibly hard to get here.” he retorted, before sending Micah an equally wide smile. “How’s your Mom doing?” he asked, out of genuine curiosity. The last time he had seen Micah’s mother she had been a wreck, but he hoped that she had been able to recover just a little.

“She’s doing well. As well as can be expected.” Micah sighed, adjusting his bag a little. “I… was a little worried about leaving her but she said I had to head out and stop worrying over her. You know what she’s like.”

Caelan nodded. He did know what Karsi was like. Many women he knew had been compared to battle axes, but there was not a single one who it was more correct than for Karsi Blackwood.

“How are your parents?” Micah returned, and Caelan smiled back, almost happy to move on from the conversation.

“They’re doing well.” Caelan responded, nodding happily. It wasn’t a lie, they had been doing well. “Thank you. We send letters occasionally, it’s easier when they can write, you know?”

Micah nodded. His mother hadn’t learnt how to write until he did. Even now, she only wrote the occasional letter in her big, blocked handwriting with simple words and barely any grammar to speak of. Caelan always received one on his birthday.

Micah simply nodded in return, and fell into step behind Caelan as he walked into the house.

Lin was stood at the bottom of the stairs in the foyer, dressed to the nines in the sharpest suit Caelan had ever seen him in. It had been carefully selected the night before, the elf going meticulously through his wardrobe and asking Caelan over and over again for his thoughts on every single piece that he chose.

He had gone for a black suit, like always, but at Caelan’s suggestion had added details of red. A tie, pocket square, and ruby cufflinks that he said belonged to his father. His hair had been combed out straight, a small braid pulled around the back but mostly loose.

Caelan knew without looking that Micah would be checking him out.

He walked closer with the confident stride that Caelan had seen him use when he was conducting business, holding his hand out to Micah to shake. 

“Lin Chasso. Caelan says you’re one of the best bards in the business.” Lin said, and wow, Caelan knew that was the way straight to Micah’s heart. Whether Lin knew that or not was another matter, and one Caelan didn’t really want to think about right now.

“Micah Blackwood.” The tiefling replied, and Caelan tried to ignore the way his tail whipped at his leg. “And I try to be a modest person, but yes. I am the best bard in the business.”

Caelan tried not to roll his eyes, simply coughing and stepping slightly further away from Micah so his tail swished harmlessly across the floor instead.

“Well,” Lin responded with another grin that was guaranteed to have broken any number of hearts in the past. “We have some business to discuss, don’t we? But first, would you like to join us upstairs?”

Caelan knew what Lin had said wrong instantly. A grin split Micah's face in two, and the half-elf cursed just how oblivious Lin apparently was. 

"Wow, forward, I like it" Micah responded, raising a hand to Lin's forearm easily. "Didn't expect to be asked so soon but with a face like that? Damn, how could I…"

"We're not gonna fuck." Caelan interrupted, and with that Lin suddenly realised just what he had insinuated. His ears dropped in embarrassment, that full face blush almost making him redder than Micah. He looked mortified, like he had no idea how his words could be construed as anything but innocent. "His office is upstairs. He's inviting you to dinner, and to talk business. Or do you usually jump into your employers bed?" A tad hypocritical, maybe, but who was keeping count?

"S-sorry." Lin stammered, and Caelan knew he was struggling to keep his composure. "Not that I would say no, you're very attractive, it's just…"

He looked at Caelan, and the words hung in the air. Lin didn't know what they were. They had never really discussed if they were exclusive. Sure Caelan had snuck out to pick people up in bars, but he wasn't sure about Lin. Caelan had always been one to go with the flow, though. 

Putting a name on things just made it too… permanent. 

Monogamy was too close to domesticity. 

It took the half-elf only a second, before he decided to end Lin's misery. 

"We're dating." He grinned, moving past the two men and up the stairs, leaving the bombshell he just dropped to settle in. 

It would need to be discussed, eventually, but right now they had a job to do. And it would be fun to see how professional Lin could be after a comment like that.


	11. Offensive Defense

Lin lay in bed that night, staring up at the ceiling. He had a lot to think about, an awful lot to think about.

Caelan was fast asleep next to him, one arm thrown around his waist as he rested his head on his chest. It was nice, they hadn’t started out like that, Caelan had found his way into that position in his sleep.

Dating. They were dating. At least, Lin thought they were dating. Caelan had mentioned it to Micah, when Micah had assumed that Lin had been inviting him to sleep with the two of them. It was casual, said in passing, and not elaborated on since.

Lin had needed that elaboration.

They had been living together for a few months, a few months where Lin thought he might be falling in love, if the books that he had read was correct. It had that same feeling, his heart beating faster whenever he saw Caelan, ears fluttering unconsciously, starting to actively fight not to purr when he was around.

If this was what falling in love was, Lin found that he kind of enjoyed it.

It was like nothing he had ever felt before, and he wanted to feel it over, and over, and over again. That odd feeling in his stomach, the way he couldn’t even begin to put words together around him.

He had been too scared to show it before, he had no idea as to just how Caelan felt about him. In a way, he still didn’t know how Caelan felt about him. Did Caelan love him back? Is that what was implied by saying they were dating? He was unsure. It wasn’t as if he had ever done this before. After a while he decided not to risk it, and decided not to say anything just yet. He had read an awful lot of romance novels, and he knew that saying “I Love You” for the first time was something very important, and not to be said too soon.

It hadn’t been the only shock of the day, the only thing that he had to lie and contemplate in the dark before the sun rose and he could finally rest.

After they had finally gotten to Lin's office, meaning to sit and talk business, Lin was still reeling from Caelan's statement and then the bastard decided to send him reeling again. 

It came in the form of a message spell, spoken into Lin's head. He was used to it, in theory, but he had no idea that Caelan could do it. He almost couldn't keep himself from jumping up when he heard the half-elf's voice inside his head. 

"You can still sleep with him, if you want?" 

Lin didn't know what to reply to that, and by the time he did the communication pathway had been closed. It was impossible for him to reopen it. 

And a part of him thought that Caelan knew that. He must have done, that's the only reason he would be sat there looking as fucking smug as he did immediately after, watching Lin flounder keeping his brain in order as he did. 

So. That was something else Lin had to try and figure out. He had known Caelan had been meeting up with people in town, and although it sent pangs of jealousy through Lin's heart he didn't want to say anything about it. Maybe he wanted an open relationship? 

Lin wasn't… Averse to it. As long as Caelan came home at the end of the day he couldn't complain. He would have Caelan, and Caelan would have the freedom to do whatever he want. 

And it wasn't like Micah was unattractive. Lin knew that even if he didn't have Caelan here he wouldn't be alone in bed tonight. He hadn't missed the way Micah's eyes ran over him like he was a cake in some bakery. Not that he minded. He was used to those kind of looks. And he very rarely denied men what they craved. 

He didn't know whether Caelan was interested in just letting Micah join in with the two of them, or bedding them individually, he never had time to ask. Caelan hadn't… Avoided the topic as such. He just seemed to make sure Lin's mind was on something else the whole time. Even when Micah had excused himself to go to bed, Caelan had dragged Lin into the bedroom and kept him otherwise distracted. 

Lin didn't want to insinuate that Caelan was deliberately teasing him, but he wouldn't put it past him for a second. Hell, he had pretty much said it himself a few hours ago when he admitted he liked seeing Lin embarrassed. Something about him looking cute with a blush darkening his freckles. Lin couldn’t quite decide what he thought about that. It was nice, sure, but certainly made him blush even thinking about it right now. It was a good thing that Caelan was asleep so couldn’t tease him further.

He sighed heavily, looking out of the window to try and see what time it was. A couple of hours before dawn, and he was yet to sleep. It wouldn’t be the first time he stayed up all night but… he knew that Caelan didn’t like him doing it. And now they were dating, well. He had to take things like that into account, right?

After a few moments of deliberation he finally closed his eyes, dead set on thinking about something else until he had tranced long enough. After all, he had a busy couple of days coming up.

Lin hated leaving Caelan in bed, he really did, but he had forgotten to start on breakfast, what with Micah being there the night before and wanting to be shown around the house and gardens. And who was he to deny him?

That’s why he was in the kitchen in the early morning, kneading the bread he would need to make the dwarven style toast Caelan had let slip that Micah liked. Usually it would be better with slightly stale bread but, well, he didn’t have any left over so this would have to do.

He heard Micah before he saw him, the slight swish of his tail on the floor and the tired footsteps as they got closer to the kitchen. For a second he panicked, did he know what Caelan had suggested? How should he act alone with him? What if he started making a move and Lin had to make a decision quicker than he wanted to?

His face had adopted a perfectly normal expression by the time Micah came in, though, and he even managed to pretend he hadn’t heard the tie fling arrive.

“Morning.” he said with a yawn, before walking over to one of the unused counters and hopping up onto it. Lin couldn’t help but smile at that, it was almost exactly what Caelan did. It was nice to have some company in the kitchen, at least. “Sleep well? Or, you know, trance. Whatever.”

Lin chuckled at that, blowing a stray strand of hair out of his face and looking over at Micah with a shy smile. “Morning. You’re up early. And I tranced very well, thank you. How did you sleep?”

“Oh, so well.” Micah replied, face lighting up in a way that Lin tried to ignore. His tail swished faster behind him, until he grabbed it and held it against his leg to stop it. “That’s the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. I could get used to it, you know. And yeah, Mom gets up at the crack of dawn and even if she lets me stay in she inevitably wakes me up somehow and I’m just used to it, you know?”

Lin tried to avoid the blush. He had stayed in enough inns around the country to know that the beds in his house were some of the best quality he had ever gotten to sleep in.

“Well, you’re welcome to stay as long as you like. I certainly don’t need the room any time soon, and Caelan seems to like having an old friend around.” he responded, turning back to the dough in front of him in the hope he didn’t need to hide his blush as much as he was currently doing for much longer.

“I meant to talk to you about that.” Micah said, looking back to the door and dropping his voice. Lin’s shoulders stiffened, trying not to show it in his movements but knowing that he was failing. “He… I wanted to thank you. This is the happiest I have seen him since… In a very long time. Can you make sure he stays this happy?”

And that was it, the blush on Lin’s face heating up and he knew it was starting to spread. The idea that he made Caelan happy? He… he couldn’t believe it. He hadn’t made anyone happy before.

“I… I will try my utter best.” Lin responded. He took a deep breath, trying to decide exactly how much he wanted to reveal to Micah. He had done his own digging when it became aware that Caelan would be living with him. It was only safe, you had to understand. If you were going to have someone living with you, you should know at least some of their past.

And sometimes you were worried that asking them straight out was gonna make them leave.

“Micah… The ‘since’ you were just about to say. You mean his family, don’t you?”

He sensed the tiefling next to him freezing, and after a second the rhythmic tapping of his tail against the counter stopped dead.

“He told you about that?” he said in a whisper, not looking at Lin in favour of keeping up staring at the door. Lin couldn’t help but follow his gaze, hoping that he could spot Caelan getting closer if he decided to wake up early.

“Not… exactly.” Which was true, the knowledge of the assassination of Caelan’s family had been found from his friend Albion, who had, in all defense, been very gentle in breaking the news. “I… Look. I’ve lived with bounties on my head for years, I need to make sure that the people I employ aren’t about to turn me in for a quick payout. I can promise that I never pried, though. As soon as I found out I backed away.”

That one… wasn’t true. He had pushed further and further into Caelan’s past, from his wedding to the birth of his child, through his relatively successful career as an assassin, to the revenge that took his families life and subsequent descent into depression and self destruction.

But Micah didn’t need to know that.

“I… I just want to make sure that he’s safe. And he’s happy. It’s nice to see him smile again, you know?” Micah continued, and Lin nodded slowly. “I just… don’t want him to get hurt again. Losing Leliana and Maria hurt all of us deeply, but it damn nearly killed him. I don’t… I don’t think he would survive it again.”

Lin was quiet for a moment, not moving as he was lost in his own thoughts. He couldn’t guarantee anything. He sure as fuck couldn’t protect him if bad things were to happen, that was for sure. But he did know that he would do everything in his current power to make his life better.

“I… I’ll keep him happy. I’ll keep him as safe as I can. I can promise you that I will never do anything to hurt him. I… I think I’m…”

“In love with him?” Micah finished, and Lin could do nothing but nod slightly. “Maybe… huh. Maybe don’t tell him yet? I don’t… I don’t know if he’s ready for that yet.”

Lin paused a minute, closing his eyes as he tried to work itself out in his head. It took him a long while to respond, but when he did it was quiet and under his breath.

“I don’t think he is. I… thank you. I’ll remember that.” 

All things told it had been a very good day. It had been apparent very quickly that Michah had never really been to Hyrendell before, it showed in the way his tail twitched excited as his eyes darted around trying to take everything in.

Caelan and himself had ended up just following him around wherever he wanted to go. They had taken enough walks around the markets in the city, and if there was anything they really wanted then they could always come back in a day or two. Micah almost bounced around between stalls, seemingly completely unaware of some of the looks he was getting. Lin wished he could be that oblivious as well.

He must have gone between every stall in the market, picking things up and looking them over carefully before they got to the other end, and paused for a second before nodding back in.

Lin threw a glance over to Caelan, who simply shrugged, taking his arm with a giggle and following behind again.

Micah had found his way to a jewellery stall, and was already in the process of handing over the gold for a silver amulet on a sturdy chain. Lin and Caelan joined him, and the elf hated the way that his mere presence seemed to put the shopkeeper at ease. If Micah noticed he didn’t show it, instead turning around with a bright grin and tucking it into his jacket pocket carefully.

“Present for someone special?” Lin asked, falling into step with Micah as he wordlessly started to head back towards the house. Apparently he was done with his shopping trip.

“Someone very special.” he replied, and some of the disappointment must have shown on Lin’s face because Caelan chuckled under his breath, elbowing him in the stomach gently.

“He means his Mama. He’s a little Mama’s boy.” Caelan explained, and Micah simply turned around to stick his tongue out at him, taking a few steps backwards without breaking his stride before spinning back to face forward in one simple movement.

“Just because my Mama is so great. Anyway, it’s got a protection charm on it. You know what she’s like, she’s refusing to slow down, and now I have the cash I might as well get her a little something, right?” he grinned, a cheeky grin that lit up his entire face.

“Your mother is the person I would least suspect to need protecting.” Caelan sighed, before looking back at Lin as he opened his mouth to ask the question. “Karsi Blackwood is a mountain of a woman. I swear they’ve gotta have some giant in that bloodline somewhere. She’s probably even taller than you, and is built to match.”

“I don’t do her genes justice” Micah laughed, tail still sweeping lazily behind him as his ears fluttered much like Lin’s did. “But, despite that, she is getting older despite how much she tries to ignore it. Any protection she has gives me peace of mind. And she’ll wear it because I got it for her.” he said with almost a smirk in his tone, but despite that Lin still believed it. Micah seemed like the type of guy who could wrap anyone around his little finger with ease.

“She sounds like an incredible woman.” Lin mused, almost not expecting anything to come from it but Micah had obviously been waiting for a moment to gush about her. It reminded him more of a mother talking about her son, not the other way around.

“She is. She raised me all on her own, from when she was a baby. Apparently my Dad was a mercenary she slept around with once, and he never bothered coming back for me. But it was fine, cause I had Mama and that was all I needed, right?”

Lin could see in his eyes that no matter how much he tried to hide it, Micah was more upset with his father leaving than he wanted to let on.

“She’s got this massive axe, it’s taller than me, but she picks it up like it’s nothing. I once saw her fell a tree with it in one swing. But she said that she doesn’t like using it for trees. That’s not what it was built for.”

Lin could guess just what it had actually been built for.

“I’m gonna use the money from this job to get it enchanted, I think. She doesn’t want a new one, it was her Dad’s and she said she doesn’t even want the damage fixed. But, she’ll let me put charms on it after literally years of wearing her down. I was thinking about protection, but this amulet will do that for her. So maybe I got for something like increased damage. Or make it fire axe, she always liked fire.”

Lin couldn’t help but smile as he watched Micah talk. It was obviously a case of getting him started on something and never getting him to stop, but the way he spoke with such enthusiasm he just couldn’t bring it upon himself to stop listening.

He really was just a little ray of sunshine on a cloudy day.

Caelan couldn't help but fidget uncomfortably in the robes he had borrowed. Sure, he could have easily created them as part of the disguise that lengthened his hair and his ears, but the less he had to focus on the better. Which was why Lin had pulled out some old robes that he said belonged to his sibling from the very back of the wardrobe.

They didn’t match his colouring at all, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that they had belonged to Ro, and Caelan didn’t really feel like he should be wearing them at all. Lin had always spoken of him with such… reverence, such importance. More of a hero, than a sibling. To be remembered, almost worshipped, as unhealthy as that was. To be wearing his clothes just… he couldn’t put it into words. It just left his stomach feeling unsettled.

A glance over to the left almost made him double take. Micah had disguised himself along with him, as a half elf, but the difference almost made him completely unrecognizable. His face was almost exactly the same, but gone was the red skin, the large horns adorning his head, and the tail that he knew was strapped down to his thigh to stop it from moving and possibly giving them away entirely. 

His robes weren’t as luxurious as the ones Lin and Caelan wore, apparently half-elves weren’t allowed fabric as expensive as the ones the other two wore. Lin had grimaced when he said it, it was obvious he found it bullshit at least, but that was the way they would have to play it.

Caelan was Lin’s apprentice, that was how he was to be allowed into the very private chambers of their quarry with Lin. Micah would stay outside, distract the guards, so that they wouldn’t be disturbed if he did decide to scream. He was there as a servant, and therefore, he was required to stay outside.

Caelan was finding that the more he learnt about the society Lin grew up in, the less he liked it.

Balen’s house was in the middle of the city, and Caelan had always found that more difficult than country houses. So many people mingling around, so many nosy neighbours who want to know what’s happening. And at this time, probably journalists wanting to catch a big scoop on the latest gossip in the city.

Lin straightened as they came closer to the guards, walking with a purpose and seriousness that Caelan had never seen in him before. His posture was always perfect, of course, but there was something new in him today that Caelan couldn’t put into words.

“Master Chasso.” One of the guards said in Elvish, and Caelan was suddenly filled with fear that Micah couldn’t speak any Elvish at all. It was a stupid, stupid, oversight, and one that Caelan wondered if Lin even knew about. Hopefully he wouldn’t be asked any questions, or spoken to in Elvish at all. Hopefully it wasn’t strange if he started a conversation in common tongue. That was all that Caelan could ask for.

“I have an appointment with Balen Chasso.” Lin responded, his voice a tone that Caelan hadn’t heard before. Was this what Lin was like when he was conducting business? “He is expecting me, and I am to meet him in his chambers. I am all he has, after all, in this trying time.”

The guards barely looked at him, before looking over his shoulder at the two men following. Both of them fell into their roles easily, knowing that they were to play Lin’s most humble followers. It seemed ridiculous, devoting themselves so heavily to the man who was just this morning cooking them breakfast in nothing but sweatpants, but if that was what was expected of them, that was what they would do.

“And who are these?” the guard said dismissively. It was strange, Caelan thought. Surely in this ridiculous scenario he ranked higher than some lowly guard. He bit his cheek, though. It wasn’t good to start thinking like that.

“Airdan, my apprentice, and Kharis, my servant. We are all expected.” Lin responded, sounding terse and annoyed at being spoken to. Caelan knew it was all an act, but it was an awfully good act.

“The servant will have to…” The guard started, before Lin raised himself to his full height, voice raising in volume along with it.

“Do you think me stupid?” He asked with a growl. “Do you not know who I am? I know the rules, and I would ask kindly you do not insult me any further.”

The guard stared back, before nodding and stepping aside. He looked… Caelan didn’t want to call it scared for his life but… he looked scared for his life. The creeping suspicion that guards in this house had been dismissed for less teased at the edges of his mind. Oh well, it wasn’t like he would be employed for much longer after this anyway.

Lin stepped past the gate into the garden, robes billowing behind him in a way that Caelan couldn’t help but be impressed by. He looked every bit the billionaire businessman that…

Caelan was about to fill in that gap with “that he pretended to be” before realising that… that’s what Lin actually was. He was just very good about hiding it the rest of the time.

As soon as they got to the doors they were flung open by a man who was no doubt related to Lin.

He had the same red eyes, although his hair was a jet black like his father’s. The facial structure was the same, too, and his skin just as pale as Lin’s but without the freckles dusting his face. Those must have come from Lin’s mother’s side. There was something else missing, though, and Caelan struggled to think of what it is. Something that he saw in Lin’s face which was completely absent in Balen’s.

“Balen!” Lin grinned, and that was it. Balen didn’t have the same compassion in his eyes as Lin did. The words then fell into a language that Caelan did not understand. He assumed it was Star Elvish, he could still recognise one or two words that told him that they were in greeting, but nothing further than that.

Balen looked the other two men up and down warily, and a part of Caelan worried that he had seen straight through their disguise. But he just made a disgusted face, looking back to Lin and saying something in that other language he didn’t understand.

Lin paused for a second, and Caelan could see his shoulders tensing for a moment before relaxing back in that casual pose he had been in before. His voice had a hint of annoyance in it, though, and Caelan wished that he had just more of an inkling of what was being said. It was something bad against him, obviously. Something that Lin was defending. It upset him a little that Lin wasn’t getting angrier about it, but he quickly shook his head to try and get rid of it. It shouldn’t be at all important what Lin thought of him, but for some reason he couldn’t explain it was.

Balen looked again, a look that would have been down his nose if he had been taller than Caelan. It was the type of look Caelan was used to receiving in Hyrendell, from some of the older elves. It was strange, seeing it on the face of someone much younger. He supposed that was what happened when you grew up in this sort of an environment.

“Lin says you don’t speak Star Elvish.” he said in common Elvish, and Caelan snapped back to attention. He nodded, smiling politely in a way he hoped was subservient enough.

“Not yet, I’m afraid. Moon or common elvish only.” he responded, that same fake-polite smile across his face.

“Disappointing” Balen responded, turning around and heading into the house. Lin shot an apologetic look over his shoulder quickly before following. 

The normal Caelan would spit back at that, fight as good as he got. He would tell Balen exactly what he thought, exactly where he could shove his old fashioned racist ideas. And if he didn’t take that advice, then maybe he would beat it into him before he did.

But he wasn’t normal Caelan. He was Airdan, Lin’s doting apprentice. He would follow his master, and that meant being obedient. Even if every bone in his body protested against it.

“The servant will stay out here.” He added in Elvish, and Caelan passed on the message through magical means to Micah. 

Got it Micah sent back, before turning and making it seem like he was keeping guard at the door. In actual fact he would start roaming the house as soon as they were both inside, looking for the other guards to distract.

The room they were being led into was large, and it was obvious to Caelan that Balen didn’t just have a private room for business, but he had private rooms. Ornately decorated as well, just like Lin’s, but without the small touches that made it more, well… homely he supposed. Everything was in it’s place, no pillows on the sofa for any reason other than decoration, no coffee mug from that morning or book half read.

It was then that Caelan started to almost silently cast his spell.

“What do you want?” Balen spat out, the politeness that had obviously been put on for show in front of the guards disappearing. 

“My, Balen, such rudeness. I came to pay my respect for your poor father. And so soon after your mother, too, it really is a…” Lin started, before Balen stepped up to him and interrupted. Caelan wished he could hurry up his spell.

“I know it was you, Lin. I’ll prove it, one day. All this talk of a curse, everyone forgets you are the curse. You have always been the curse.” the other elf spat back, and for a split second Caelan paused in his spell. Lin was the curse? What did that mean? Lin had been affected by the curse, he wasn’t…

The magic started to fade around him, and he quickly re-upped the spell so it didn’t fall completely and he had to start again. But the thought still clung in the back of his head. To investigate further later. 

“The curse came to light when I was born, Balen, you know that.” Lin soothed, but even Caelan could tell that there was something underneath. Something that he couldn’t quite put a name to. “But it has been there for millenia. You’ve seen the family history books, the Chasso curse predates me.”

“But you live in it, Lin.” Balen spat back, stepping another step closer. Lin didn’t back down, though, and Caelan tried to hide the smile. This Lin was a different Lin, a much different Lin than what he was used to. A Lin with a… sadistic streak. Caelan couldn’t say he hated it.

“You’ve basked in it for as long as you’ve been alive. Every decision you’ve made has played into it. An excuse, for all of your shortcomings. The curse is your suit of armour, and your weapon.” 

Lin’s face didn’t stir, staring down at the much shorter man. A face of impassiveness. His fake politeness had dropped at the start of Balen’s rant, to be replaced with… nothing. If he was upset with the accusations, with the insults, he didn’t show it.

“I have accepted death.” Balen finally responded, anger dissipating and an air of sadness filling the room. It might have been Caelan’s spell, finally starting to take hold of him. He had to admit it was easier than Caelan had ever imagined. Balen didn’t even seem to be fighting back.

“I thought I would fight. Thought I would call in the guards but… what’s the point? You’re not gonna stop. You’ve done worse. As soon as I heard the news I knew you were coming. But you’re a smarter man than I, Lin, and I knew I never stood a chance. It was fun, working out how you would kill me. Never thought you would drag other people in.”

Lin’s face remained empty, and if he wasn’t so far into the spell, Caelan would have questioned it. But as it was he just carried on singing. Not long now and, if he was honest, he didn’t even bother to try and hide it anymore.

Caelan didn’t feel guilty. He had killed far more innocent people for far smaller reasons. And anyway, Lin had said that Balen would set a bounty on him soon. Proactive revenge. That’s what this was. 

The world really was kill or be killed, Caelan knew that more than anyone else.

Balen wasn’t finished, though. He had taken a break, sure, turning around to survey his office and taking a deep breath. Caelan had never really seen a man that had accepted death before, but apparently this was it.

“History won’t reflect well on you, Lin.” Balen added, finally standing behind the desk and levelling an easy stare. “All of your plans, everything you think is going to happen. When all of this comes out, when we’re all long gone, they’re going to look at you and they’re going to call you a monster.”

Lin’s face was still empty. Still devoid of any emotion. And for once Caelan wished there was something there, something that he could read and see what Lin was thinking below that mask.

“So no, Lin. I’m not going to stop you. I’ll go into death with my head held high. But… will you?”


End file.
